Naruto the First Avatar
by toofine89
Summary: When Naruto calls on the Kyuubi's chakra to defeat Gaara at the chunin exams, he is surprised at the embodiment of a kind monk that helps him win. Aang tells Naruto of his destiny, to be the first Avatar of his world. Possible Harem, yes NaruIno.
1. Chapter 1

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruko and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**

**Naruto: Master of Elements and Jutsu**

The great spirits were happy with their choice in an Avatar for the world of bending. He had solved a great war, toppled an evil lord, and was well on his way to restoring the Air Nomads with the help of his wife, and kindhearted water bender named Katara. However, he had been killed once in his Avatar mode, ending the cycle of rebirth in his world. It was unfortunate that they would lose such a great leader for their world, but they did not truly need one anymore. The Elemental Nations, however, were in desperate need of a savior and a uniter, a chosen child to try to end the hate of the world. Although the world was young and still forming, the spirits knew what was to come. One day, the last Avatar, a monk named Aang, passed away.

Arriving in Kami's court, he was given an option. He could pass into the Spirit World as was his right, or don the form he was to be given in a new world, waiting for the chosen child to come along so that he could be taught in the ways of bending and peace. Needless to say, to man decided to help a new world. He, along with his closest friends, became tailed beasts with immense power, those of their pure bending abilities incarnate. In this way, Bumi, Mai, Sokka, Iro, Toph, Zuko, Suki, Katara, and Aang arrived in this new world.

They started living as guardians of the people. Mai and Zuko, Nibi and Rokubi, Cat and Slug, lived together and protected the North. Sokka and Suki, Sanbi and Nanabi, Turtle and Beatle, protected the South. Bumi and Toph, Ichibi and Gobi, Tanuki and Horse, guarded the East. Katara and Aang, Hachibi and Kyuubi, ox and fox, guarded the West. Iro, the Yonbi, the Gorilla, guarded the interior. They lived life where they had left off, often traveling in human form, with their mates. Toph and Bumi, each of these immigrants having been reverted permanently to their twenties, even fell for each other.

However, this world did not last long. Soon, a new breed arose. They were able to use a power unknown to the benders. It was an energy known as chakra that used a combination of physical and mental strength and balance. Soon the bijuu, as they had come to be known, developed their own use for chakra and mixed it with their bending. When these "ninja" saw the strength of the tailed beasts, they were fearful of their guardians and started to seal them away in objects for protection or in humans to control some of their gargantuan strength.

One day when Aang and Katara, the most powerful bijuu and the last to be free, were separated, Katara was caught and bound. Aang was torn in his decision as he knew that he could not let his mate be hurt, but that he could not hurt those he was bound to protect. Instead, he vanished for a period of over one hundred years. He found a cave in the vast wilderness, one that only the bending of four elements could open, and made it his den where he slept a turbulent nightmare of solitude and loss. But then, one day, he felt a spirit, a brand new spirit, that was his kin. It had the potential to air bend.

He broke from his cavern and into the world of the corporeal once more, seeking the boy he felt was like his child, forgetting how he had become feared and not caring. He could see, through limited visions, that this boy was going to live a life of hurt and pain if he were not taken from the village now. Poor Aang did not realize after the fact, however, that when he engaged the ninja in combat for the boy and was sealed into the same baby boy's body and mind that he was the cause of the misfortune he had seen.

For ten years he slept before waking, for five years he read the boy's memories to the present day, and then he steeled his mind. He waited for the chance to be called upon and help the boy that was his kit, help him master bending and find the truth of who he was, but rarely found an option to talk. In one instance, the boy, believing him to be belligerent, came into the mind space, demanded chakra, and then disappeared to summon a toad. Aang was sad they hadn't properly talked, but was glad that at least he had contact and had helped save the boy. Soon after, a mere few hours ago, he had given the boy more chakra to help put a fate-loving loser in his place. Now he waited calmly for his chance to talk with the boy, his kit.

"Gamabunta! I can't get anything in on him!" cried out the hysteric blonde. He was currently riding the boss toad's back and fighting the mad jinchurikki of the one tailed tanuki, Bumi. It is proper to note, however, that he had been named Shukaku by the village hidden in the sand.

"Hold on boy," the frog bellowed as it avoided another attack. "I don't have much chakra left, so we'll fuse our chakra together. Imagine something huge with claws to hold him in place and then go after the boy on his head!"

"What?" yelled Naruto in surprise.

"You heard me. Well, ready or not, one!" he said, gathering immense reserves of chakra as did Naruto. "Two!" They formed the sign for the henge, jutsu. Strangely, Naruto felt the Kyuubi's chakra run through him. This time, however, it was not the savage chakra from before. It almost contained the laughter of a kind-hearted man. "Three!" They both disappeared in a huge puff of smoke, but what surprised them the most was the form Gamabunta took.

Naruto was somehow floating in the air and next to him was a man in his twenties, strong yet lean, who had these weird arrow tattoos on him that were strangely glowing. With a wave of his hand, he swept the sand of Bumi's tanuki body away and left only the boy, Gaara, behind before he disappeared from sight, as fast as the legendary Hiraishin, and appeared at his side, punching him square in the jaw once.

Naruto blacked out for a moment, appearing by the all too familiar Kyuubi cage in his mind and seeing something new. It was the same man, a monk by all appearances, sitting with a serene smile on his face. "Hello Naruto. I am the man that you call Kyuubi, but we must talk later. When you sleep tonight, we will do so. For now, I trust you to set that young man's mind straight and off of his path of violence. My friend inside of him needs him to rest and recover or he will be permanently off of his rocker." The man sighed and Naruto nodded dumbly. "Very good!" the man said with a smile. "I will see you later tonight."

With that, Naruto awoke as his body lowered to the ground unharmed, Gamabunta having long disappeared. He walked over to the redhead and sighed. He continued to as Aang had asked, though he knew not how he new the Kyuubi's name. At the end, Gaara asked if he could be a friend and Naruto, of course, accepted. Before his siblings carried him off into the forest, Gaara had one last request. "Bumi wants Aang to know he's sorry and thanks for the beating. He had been raging for such a good fight for over a century now." Naruto merely nodded, somehow knowing the names just fit, before he carried his teammates home and Gaara was taken by his siblings.

Naruto had gone to sleep in the hospital, crying, that night. He wasn't crying because they had been attacked. There were very few losses, really, and the buildings could be rebuilt. He wasn't crying for his friends, they were fine. He wasn't crying because of his injuries, for they were already healing. No, he was crying for two men. One had been the greatest source of hope and inspiration in his life, lost in an effort to kill Orochimaru. The Sandaime was dead. The other had been his closest confidant for years, though he was just now learning his true name. Not only had he mistreated Aang, but he felt that he was no better than the villagers for judging the man before he got to know him. He felt like he was a scum worse than trash.

He fell asleep in the hospital bed, bitter tears still running down his face, and appeared in his mind scape the same way. Aang stood behind the bars of his cage as this boy slowly faded into existence in his mind scape. Aang had grown tall with age and grew a stronger jawline. He currently stood shirtless as his feral instincts had overwhelmed such niceties long ago, though he still wore baggy orange pants so that he wouldn't scare Naruto. His abs were compact, pecs tight, and biceps well toned. In general, he was all lean, yet still very strong, muscle. His tattoos still ran over his head and hands, though they were currently dull, not glowing bright blue as both they and his eyes had when Naruto had him fight Bumi.

Currently he gripped the bars, wishing he could leave to help the boy but being confined. A few lonely tears drifted down his face for, although his muscles may have grown rock hard and fighting style brutal with time, his heart was still gentle, carefree, and emotional as it had been since the day he was still living with the monks. A single tear fell from his face and dropped to the ground with a _splash_ sound that was much to loud for what it was.

Naruto seemed to notice where he was at that sound. He tensed for a second, subconsciously reaching out a hand to feel the ground that was hard concrete, covered in slime and damp, before he stood up and turned around while attempting to hide his tears. He may have stopped crying for a second now, but his eyes were red and face wet. He walked to the bars, and gripped them the same way Aang was. A young free spirit of joy and energy, now stained with an aching heart, stared into the eyes of an old being that knew the same joys and same sorrows. Their hearts called to each other like father and son before the particular bars they held rusted and snapped.

Turning to look at the rusted bar in his hand, realizing the last barrier between him and what he had always feared had now been broken and that it filled him with joy, Naruto teared up again. Aang embraced him in a fatherly hug, letting his kit cry it out until he heard Naruto start to sniffle, bringing his tears under control.

Aang brought him out to arm's length so that they could see each other's face, and Naruto managed to get out a "Sorry," before the monk just smiled. Yes, this boy was the spirit he had been brought here for.

"There is nothing to apologize for, Naruto." He warmly wrapped his arm around the boy and led him deeper into the cage. "Come, we have much to discuss." Naruto let himself be led blindly into the ever present darkness that changed around them into a green outdoor courtyard. Aang continued to lead him until they came to a room with a strange device on it. With a wave of his hand, Aang sent a torrent of wind through the device to unlock the door and led his young ward inside.

Naruto started to look around them, uncomprehending of Aang's mastery over wind. There was a stone bench in the middle of the dark room Aang had led them into and he was walked over to it and sat down. Aang closed his eyes for a moment, breathed out a small breath, and clapped his hands. The room sprang to life with light, endless torches being lit with a warm fire, and revealing the contents of the room.

It was an endlessly large room, it seemed, with pedestals that each held untouched granite slabs except for the mass closest to them. It was shaped much like Naruto, though taller, stronger, more at peace. He was smiling with his hands behind his head. The current Naruto noticed this man he saw looked nearly identical to the Yondaime Hokage, but saw that he had whisker marks on his face, a slightly taller build, enlarged canines, and the position was one of Naruto's old standbys. In fact, it was Naruto, the first Avatar of the Elemental Nations. He had gotten up to examine the statue, noticing the three swirled marks at the bottom as well.

Aang approached him from behind, a smile on his face and in his voice. "That is the symbol for air."

Naruto turned around, a slightly confused expression on his face, "But why does he look like me?"

Aang motioned towards the bench again as he had a story to tell the young boy, and it would take some time.

He first talked about how the bijuu came into being, describing his friends and telling Naruto that he was a jinchuuriki. He told the story of his life and death and experience, though very much summed up. And then he came to the present. "As I said, I was sent here to find a chosen child of prophecy, destiny, and all that jazz. Sixteen years ago, I had a dream. I dreamt that you were born into a battlefield and that, due to some misfortune, you were alone and hated. That they avoided you like the plague. I rushed to your defense, not thinking to hide my power. That was my downfall.

"You see, they saw my power and thought I was coming to attack them, not defend you. Your father, the Yondaime Hokage, sealed me inside of your stomach and died in the process." He sighed and nodded his head. "It's as bad as the time I let loose the tigershark at the swimming pool. I just wanted to liven things up but, well, what can I say? Anyway, what's done is done and I hope you'll forgive me," he finished, looking at Naruto for confirmation. "It would mean a lot to me." The blonde just nodded after a second of thought. After all, Aang had meant to help him, not hurt him.

The monk smiled. "Well then, I'm still not sure that I've explained who you are meant to be. I did mention you are the Yondaime's son and you seem to have taken that pretty well." Naruto nodded his head again, though softly. He was glad to know who his father was, and proud his father saved the village, but it was hard to know all the trouble he had in life stemmed from the Yondaime as well. In the end, however, he had to admit that he was glad the Yondaime had done what he did. If Aang truly had meant the worst and hadn't been sealed, no one in the village, Naruto included, would have lived.

"There is more, however." Now this peaked Naruto's interest. Learning his parentage was already amazing, what more could happen? "You are chosen to be an Avatar like I was, the first Avatar of the Elemental Nations. You will use the chakra of ninja and the bending of my world together, though you will start with wind. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, that statue has the symbol for air. The reason why is that air-bending will come extremely naturally to you as will wind jutsu. That statue is what you will become in life, Naruto. In fact, one day you will build at least this room of the temple we are currently in as an homage to all Avatars past and future. This memorial will become eternal as will your line of successors, though many will not share your blood."

Naruto felt shell-shocked. Air bending? Building a temple? Being forever remembered? The first of his own line? This was something he had always dreamed for. Power to achieve his dreams, a goal, a testament, and a family of sorts. A huge smile drifted to his face before it disappeared and became serious. "So, if you're inside of me, can I just use your chakra and bending too?"

Aang sighed, happy the boy was so intuitive yet sad that he would have to disappoint. "Yes and no. When I was sealed, half of my ability, my bending, was sealed inside of the shinigami's stomach. I know him from my visits to the spirit world and, trust me, I am not getting that back anytime soon.. However, I can teach you both the art of being a bender and of using your chakra and jutsu to the fullest. I could even give you my chakra when you need it, I suppose. However, when we're done, you'll have as much chakra as I do now." Naruto was basically on cloud nine. This was awesome.

"In any case," Aang continued, "I will soon teach you to make a version of me that can teach you in the real world, though I will lack most of my power whenever I am out. Until then, we will talk at night and train as well."

"We're going to train in here!" Naruto yelled out in excitement. "What are we going to do first?"

Aang gave him a kind smile. "First, you are going to wake up. It has taken me two days to tell you my story and you should be healed up perfectly by now. I'll think about it today and we'll act on it tonight, though I will warn you some of it will be extremely boring."

For once Naruto didn't mind boring. If boring meant eventually controlling air, water, earth, and fire at once then boring was fine. "Hai Sensei!"

"Now, good morning and goodbye, Naruto. Remember to listen for me. I'll talk to you when I can through the day if I see something that needs addressing." With that, a pillar of light surrounded Naruto and when it faded the blonde was gone, leaving Aang with a smile on his face and peace in his heart. This boy held some promise.

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**

**Also, advertising here. First, I Beta. Secondly, I will soon release the first chapter of another fic. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the internet.**


	2. Getting Started

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Credit out to HoodFox 3, Raven Marcus, Group XZ, Volos, Mzr90, Already-Lost-It, c im am a dragon, heartblackened, Irish Shift, Meteorthunder3, emilbootanimefreak, justin the constant reviewer, and the person who is quickly becoming one of my regualrs: dregus.**

**Getting Started**

When Naruto opened his eyes he found himself in a private room in the hospital. Well, semi-private. Sasuke was in the room's second bed, to Naruto's right. It seemed that he had finally woken from his slumber. "Morning, dobe. It's about time you woke up." And that droning, monotonous voice belonged to one Sasuke Uchiha. It seemed that the last loyal Uchiha had passed out while fighting Gaara and, although he knew Naruto had won, didn't know how the blonde had done so. All he had heard rumor of was some kind of giant frog but, after all, he knew that there was no way a frog could beat a demon like that.

"Morning, teme." Naruto sat up and let out a huge yawn, the morning sunlight streaming through the window striking his golden hair and causing his already bright blue eyes to sparkle. "How's the stay here been?" he asked, not really caring but wanting to continue the conversation.

"Meh. It's a hospital. How excellent could it be?" The slight sarcasm in Sasuke's voice told Naruto the raven haired boy was just fine. "Lucky you will be out of here in no time. The nurses kept saying you were fine if you only woke up. Some idiot on the council is convinced I need another day or two to recover from complete lack of chakra." He sulked a little at that though he had to admit, somewhere deep inside and hidden from even himself, that the council was probably right, at least this one time.

Just because the council typically spoiled him didn't make them any less annoying. In fact, it often made it worse. Not to say the attention was bad, but the proposals were obnoxious, the councilmen manipulative, and the entire situation took much too much of his training time.

"Really?" Hysteria was present in the blonde's voice as, although he had just woken up, he was already hating the hospital. It reminded him of beatings he had once taken, of frailty, and of death. And he had to stay still. Now, this was the opposite of the current Naruto. This present boy was strong enough to defend himself, emotionally sturdy, and vibrant. And he never stopped moving. If the hospital was a pain for Sasuke, it was hell for Naruto.

"Yeah." Sasuke looked like he wanted to ask something, but was hesitant to do so. The brooding boy stared at the wall with a slight look in his eyes that the average person couldn't read, but Naruto knew his team mate well enough by now to see something was wrong. The brave and powerful Sasuke Uchiha was bothered by something and Naruto knew it. However, he also knew the proud boy would never voice a question without being prompted first.

"What's up?" Sasuke didn't even hear the question, so lost in his thoughts as he was, so Naruto had to repeat it. "Sasuke? Something wrong?"

This time Sasuke noticed and had the smallest expression, almost that of being broken from a trance or fixation. He must have made up his mind. He would figure out what Naruto did later. For now, he was grateful just to be alive, even if the dobe had saved him. "No. Just call in the nurse so I can have a room to myself. Well, at least until the girls show up again." Naruto just now noticed the flowers and small assortment of gifts by Sasuke's bed. He had only a vase of flowers by his side, well, that and a small package with a bow on it.

He wondered who they were from, but they held no tags. He opened the package to reveal his headband. "Oh, yeah," Sasuke spoke. "Hinata brought that by after fixing it. It got pretty beat up in the fight. I don't know who the flowers are from, though. They were there before anyone had even dropped by for me."

Naruto smiled to himself, thinking about how kind Hinata was while he stared at one of the flowers, a light purple flower with small petals and a bright yellow center, much like his golden hair. It was the first time he had ever gotten a gift in the hospital. He would just have to make sure the headband stayed in pristine condition. "Thanks, teme."

With that he pressed the call button. "I'm not going to bother waiting. Some of the nurses don't like me anyway." He swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Get better quickly. Otherwise, we can't train together." He jumped out of the bed and changed into a set of his clothes that had been set out on a chair near his bed. He ran out of the room just as the sun appeared over the top of a neighboring building, high enough in the sky for a single beam of light to reach Sasuke. The raven just smirked a little and gave a "hmmph," before he sat back and went back to wondering how the blonde did it.

Naruto was on guard leaving the hospital, trying to avoid being caught by a nurse and forced into a last minute check-up before leaving. Looking out for anyone in the white hospital uniform, he completely missed someone in purple and the golden blonde boy knocked over a platinum blonde girl.

"Geez, Naruto," complained the girl. "You think you'd watch where you're going." Naruto had completely bowled Ino over and was now sitting in a compromising position: her on her back, him straddling her waist while bent over her, his hands pinning her arms over her head. They both noticed at the same time, their faces going a little red.

"Wow, you're almost worse around girls than Sokka was," laughed an entertained Aang in the back of Naruto's mind.

Stunned by the position and distracted by Aang, the first move was left up to Ino. The girl managed to shove him off as he hadn't really been putting any force on the position and he fell to the side, managing to land on his rear. "Come on, Naruto. You're just lucky that the flowers I've got for Sasuke aren't in a vase this time." She stood up while talking, smoothing out her short purple skirt. She then proceeded to put her hands on her hips. "And nobody ever hears about this, okay?" she said in a voice that was softer than her usual tone. She may have found Naruto a little annoying, but rumor was he somehow saved forehead and Sasuke-kun. Maybe he wasn't so bad as everyone made him out to be?

"Sorry, Ino," he said while sitting on the ground. He flashed her a winning smile while his hand went behind his head in the usual pose he made when slightly embarrassed, the blush almost gone from his cheeks now. "I didn't mean to run into you and I'm glad you're alright. I haven't heard anything about how the rest of the fight went but it's good to see your fine."

Ino's blush had left her face, but now a shadow of it returned. Naruto might have been a klutz, but he really was a nice guy. "It's okay, just don't do it again," she said, poking a finger at his forehead, "Okay?" She smiled as she finished.

At first Naruto looked shocked. He had been expecting to be punched like Sakura always did when he did something stupid. He expected to be called names like Sasuke did whenever he made a mistake. He hadn't expected a playful smile and instant forgiveness. Then his smile returned, bigger and brighter than ever. "Okay!" He stood up before he noticed the flowers on the ground. He bent down to get them, happy to see they weren't damaged. He handed them over and with a smile and wave he left. He didn't even notice the flowers had small purple petals and a bright yellow center.

She looked after him as he turned around a corner. She still watched after it was obvious he was long gone. Soon, though, she snapped out of her stupor and walked to the all too familiar room where the reason for her visit was. Though, for some reason, it seemed drearier when she opened the door and Naruto wasn't in bed. The flowers by his bed had started to droop very recently, it seemed. And there, as he always was, sitting and staring into the walls of the room, was a brooding Uchiha. "Hi, Sasuke-kun!" she said in a very cheery voice.

"Hmmph," was his only response. Inwardly she sighed, but she continued with her cheery exterior, talking about the rebuilding going on and what he was missing, updating him on the world outside of the hospital's walls. He half listened and, if she was honest, it kind of hurt. The one she doted on, surrounded with gifts, showered in attention gave none in return. But Naruto, the one she had thought was a blonde haired nuisance, was kind and caring for her, even though she had done nothing for him – nothing he remembered at least. She sighed. "See you later, Sasuke-kun," she said with a hint of sorrow in her voice, leaving the room. The raven didn't even say goodbye.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Aang were conversing. "I'm just saying, kit. You are the only bender on this planet so far and the only one with the blood of the Avatar in his veins. Sooner or later you're going to have to pass on your genes."

Naruto wondered at the thought, as romantic relationships had never been a big thing for him before. 'Aang,' he thought to the creature, 'I'm only fourteen. I've got plenty of time for that in the future. Why are you bringing this up now?'

Aang chuckled at his student's obvious discomfort. "Easy, Naruto. You've already got a few girls who either like you or would easily be open to that path of action. Ino, for instance. She's stubborn, but from what I've seen of her through your memories is fiercely loyal and works hard for what she wants. And the way you were talking to her today, well, even if you didn't mean to do so, obviously showed her how caring of a guy you are for your friends. And then there's Hina-" but Naruto cut him off.

'You don't seriously think someone like Ino would like me, do you? I mean, she's nearly as pretty as Sakura-chan and Sakura has never liked me like that.' He walked a few steps more down the quiet road, kicking a stone along the dirt path. 'I guess I'll have to think about it later. By the way, you said there was something we needed to do?'

"Yeah. You need to tell Danzou the truth so he can get people to start training you." Aang couldn't tell what was going on, exactly, but he could feel something in the air and water that told him there would be hard times ahead. He didn't need to worry his charge yet, but he did need to strengthen him up.

Naruto grimaced a little. 'I don't know, Aang. I mean, he'll probably be ticked enough I'm talking with you frequently. He probably doesn't want me to be on a very good relationship with the all-powerful nine tailed fox that nearly destroyed everything he ever knew and loved. Plus, isn't that Danzou guy supposed to kinda be a slime ball?'

Aang just smiled. "Yeah, the man's made some mistakes. Some fairly large ones, actually. But in the end, he has always wanted what is best for the village. Some say the only people who kept Konoha in the Second Great Shinobi war were the Sannin, but I've seen visions in my long sleep and his Root division was a god send for your village. Without them, you wouldn't be here."

Naruto sighed. 'Yeah, sure. How do I find him then?'

"Why don't you just ask the Root member that's been tailing you for a private audience?"

Naruto looked around and, sure enough, a man that had been just outside of the hospital was just barely still in sight. And his face was cold, emotionless. 'Only cause you asked nicely, Aang,' Naruto thought to the monk before he suddenly started running down the street. The man, though a tad more discreet than his target, followed Naruto as he turned a corner. The blonde stopped and waited a moment for his tail to catch up to him. "I need to speak to Danzou," spoke the blonde boy as soon as the man reached him.

The man, dark haired with soulless eyes merely nodded and made a come here motion with his hand before taking off towards the Hokage's office.

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"No," a large man with long white hair said. "I'm not cut out for that position. I'm not weak or anything, but I'm needed elsewhere." He took a step back, red clothes rustling and wooden sandals clacking against the floor of the council room. "You'll just have to find someone else."

The elders, Danzou, Koharu, and Homaru, were exasperated at this point. Their Hokage was gone and they needed a new one if they wanted to remain strong and unified. Due to Jiraiya's strength, prestige, and overall intelligence they were hoping that he would accept. "But Jiraiya, who else could be Hokage?" asked Koharu. "It's not like Sarutobi had anyone trained for the position."

"Maybe not," said Jiraiya, his voice thoughtful, "but we all know someone with the Hokages' blood flowing directly through their veins."

"You don't mean-" asked Homaru.

"Yes. Tsunade." Jiraiya answered. "She's strong, well-known, wise, and another Sannin. Yeah, she has her problems, but they're no worse than mine."

Danzou nodded. He couldn't take the position because not only would he lack support outside of Root, but it would put him much too far into the spotlight. Furthermore, he was retired from any formal position in the Leaf. "I agree. If Jiraiya will not do it then Tsunade is the best bet. When will you be able to go find her?"

This time Jiraiya had to pause. It had only been a week since the attempted invasion, but they needed a new leader soon. "Give me two weeks. If I haven't gone by then I'll drop everything to do so." The elders nodded respectfully at his decision. That timeframe was acceptable as they knew Jiraiya to be very busy as were they, especially with rebuilding the village.

They were about to part separate ways until they heard the sound of someone yelling from outside. They heard the Anbu guarding their meeting yell a "Stop!" that was a tad muffled from their side of the heavy wooden door. However, in a second's time, the doors burst open with the Anbu chasing an orange blur that was traveling towards them.

All four were on guard until they heard the shout of, "We really need to talk, ero-Sannin!" The blur stopped to reveal a smiling Naruto, although there seemed to be a serious edge to his words. "The fox, well not really a fox I guess, but the monk told me something important!"

"Well spit it out brat!" Jiraiya retorted in his usual voice, impatient yet not unfriendly. "These people here with us are the elders and will be doing the Hokage's job until we find a new one. Now ask yourself something, is what you have to say so important that they need to hear it now, or can it wait until later?"

Naruto fidgeted on the spot as, although he was always brash in his actions, this information was delicate and the three with Jiraiya were staring at him in a rather aloof and slightly cold manner. Except the man with the eye patch. That man seemed merely devoid of emotions. However, if they were taking the Old Man's place, at least for now, they ought to know. "Yeah, they need to hear it. Did you know the tailed beasts aren't unintelligent masses of chakra?" As stupid as it sounds, that was the general idea at the time. For the next hour Naruto, with Aang's coaching, told them what he had been told, holding back little to no information. At the end of an hour, all previous engagements forgotten, his audience of four was gaping.

After a minute of waiting for response, Naruto snapped his fingers in front of their faces. Jiraiya recovered first and, not that he distrusted the boy he treated like a grandson, he called for Inoichi to come and scan Naruto's mind to verify the story was not fabricated. Sure enough, when Inoichi had entered the boy's mind and had a talk with Aang, the monk drinking tea and even offering the mindwalker some, Inoichi knew that Naruto was being completely honest.

And that's what he had to tell the onlookers. "Based on his mind state, a conversation with Aang, and the Yamanaka aptitude to sense lies I must say that he is telling the truth." The man stepped back as the other four huddled and conversed, trying to figure out what to do.

"I thought the Kyuubi gave the boy no powers?" asked Homura.

"No, it doesn't," said Danzou. "If the story is to be believed, and I think we should believe him, they are natural. It makes me wish I had trained him when he was younger."

"Well, we can't give him special training, can we?" input Koharu. "It wouldn't seem fair."

"Of course it isn't fair," said Jiraiya as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "but it's necessary. The boy is the destined child of the toads, is being targeted by nine S-class nuke nin, and now is found to be the first Avatar. If we don't give him as much of an advantage as possible, our world may literally be destroyed. Plus, I know you are always going on about bloodlines and the more we train Naruto the better the chances are of him surviving to raise up a clan of element benders for Konoha." The others had to grudgingly admit that.

"Besides," he continued, "I was going to take him on as an apprentice soon anyway. My only problem is I don't know wind jutsu and Danzou here," he looked at the man, "no offense intended, is a little past his prime. Since he needs to learn air and wind first, let Asuma help him with wind while Naruto's team is down anyway. By the time I leave for Tsunade I'll take him with me and see if he's up for being my apprentice." The three elders talked about it for a few minutes more, but the idea was solid.

Meanwhile, the blondes were talking. Inoichi always wondered what it would be like to have two consciousnesses in one body and now that Naruto knew about it, this was the chance to find out. He was almost disappointed to learn that it was no more than just a voice in Naruto's mind that the boy could visit if he meditated or slept. He suspected there had to be more to it than that. Regardless, the conversation ended as the elders turned towards them.

Danzou spoke. "Naruto, since the day you were born it seems you had a greater fate than most. We will not stand in the way of that. Tomorrow, at seven in the morning, you are to report to Sarutobi Asuma and train with him and his team. He will teach you about elemental chakra. In two weeks you will have a mission with Jiraiya, so do your best to be able to find training you can do on the road. You are dismissed."

Before the blonde boy could ask any questions, the elders walked away and out the door. Jiraiya took hold of his shoulder gently. "Go eat and get rested up. With the training they've got prepared for you, you're going to need it. See you in a couple of weeks, gaki." The white haired man left the building with Naruto in tow.

They turned in different directions, Jiraiya towards the gate and Naruto towards Ichiraku's. However, just before Jiraiya was out of hearing range, Naruto shouted, "See you ero-Sannin," chuckling as the large man face faulted. The boy in orange ran towards his ramen shop, kicking up small dirt devils along the road as he went, and pulled up the flap to the stall, only to be surprised at the group there. The very group he was supposed to train with tomorrow, minus Asuma.

"How many bowls is that now Chouji?" asked a bored Shikimaru. The large boy had been the most heavily injured of his squad after the invasion and, this being his first day out of the hospital, his friends had offered him an all you can eat meal at a restaurant of his choice. Now Ino and Shikimaru were regretting it.

"14 and counting," said Chouji, rubbing his bulging stomach in a content manner.

"Hey guys!" said Naruto as he stepped into the room. He redirected his attention to Teuchi and Ayame - the owner of the stand and his daughter. "Can I get five miso, five pork, and five vegetable?"

"That's it?" laughed out Ayame. "You must be feeling off if you're only getting fifteen."

Naruto looked sheepish. "Well, I was figuring I could always order more later. Plus, I'm not your only customer right now."

"True, Naruto," called out Teuchi as he set more noodles to boil. "But you're always our number one customer."

The boy just smiled with both hands behind his head. He was about to say, "Yeah, I'm awesome aren't I?" but Aang simply said, "Remember to be humble," so Naruto just replied with a, "Thanks!" instead. He went to sit down on the group's right, directly next to Ino. The girl was marveling at the effect Naruto seemed to have on people. The cook and his daughter had been friendly before he showed up, but now they were joking and joining in on the conversation. He really was a breath of fresh air. She smiled and joined in the conversation, sharing their stories of the invasion.

Chouji, talking around mouthfuls of noodles and, once he was full, chips, told how he managed to bowl over a whole line of Sound genin that were in an alley. Shikimaru simply said he beat a couple but giving too much detail was a drag. Ino, however, had been more on a defensive position and told how she had taken control of ninja who had come too close to the civilians she was guarding and had them fight their comrades. At first, it was hard to get Naruto to talk about his experience, partially because of the food in his mouth and partially because of his earlier reminder to be humble, but they eventually got him to tell.

"Well, I guess I beat the Ichibi in a fight." Never before had he seen looks of such incredulity on his friends' faces. And never had Ino had a higher opinion of this blonde than she had now. From there the conversation changed to jokes and stories of training, but no matter how hard Ino tried, she couldn't get Naruto out of her mind.

'Sasuke couldn't even beat Gaara when he wasn't really using Shukaku," she thought, 'but Naruto of all people beat the demon at full power without Gaara restraining him at all? When did Naruto become this strong?'

As the night progressed, that thought stuck in her head above all others and she barely noticed as the hours slipped by. If it wasn't for the pain of parting with much of her hard earned savings to pay for Chouji's meal, she never would have realized how late it was. Soon they parted ways and went home.

When Ino stepped in the door of her house, Inoichi was inside, reading a psychiatric report on Naruto due to his newly found interest in the boy. He looked up and asked, "Have a good night sweetie?" only half expecting a positive answer. He knew she wasn't the biggest fan of ramen and had had a hard time earlier with Sasuke. She had told him so after the visit with him was over.

However, the blonde girl smiled to herself before softly answering, "Yeah, dad. I think I really might have to go back to Ichiraku's sometime." Her dad uttered a noncommittal "hmm" sound to show he was listening and with that she went upstairs.

"I've never read about someone with such tendencies towards loyalty and honesty," he muttered quietly. "You really are a special one, Naruto." He flipped to the next page about the same time Naruto closed his eyes, a toad sleeping cap on his head, and went off to his new sensei in dreamland.

xxxxxxxxxx

This time, as Naruto awoke in his mind scape, he found himself outside of the giant temple where he had first met Aang. It was a beautiful area with rock gardens and flower gardens and small pagodas that looked like an extension of the earth itself. Naruto strolled through the area until he saw Aang, his eyes closed legs crossed as he meditated in one of the pagodas. He approached his new sensei but, before he could call out to him, Aang opened his eyes and gave him a warm smile.

"Hello, Naruto," he said calmly.

"Hello, Aang-sensei," the blonde responded.

"Today we have a few major goals. They will help you train more effectively in the future. Are you ready to train, then?"

Naruto, always ready for a challenge, accepted with his usual, "Believe it!"

Aang chuckled as he continued. "In that case, let's get the order of things down. First, I'll explain your mind scape. Second, I'll explain the difference between chakra and chi. Third, I'll teach you the use of a particular jutsu. And then, as your body will be restless by then and no good for anything else, we'll meditate. You still following me?" Seeing Naruto nod his head, he continued.

"Everything you see around here is a reflection of your thoughts and my thoughts. This temple is from my memories as I find it a peaceful place to learn meditation. However, you are the owner of your mind and that means that you can control this area as you wish. How about you try it? Think about the Hokage's office." Naruto did so and was amazed to see everything just the way he remembered it. He was so awed though, that he failed to keep maintaining the memory and ended back in the sewer he remembered.

"So why is this my mind scape sensei?" Naruto wondered.

Here Aang frowned. "From a young age you were beaten, neglected, damaged emotionally, and held back mentally. This filthy sewer is representing the conglomeration of all of your memories and mental capabilities. As you can see, they are not good. However, with the right training and learning you will be able to have this place look much nicer and with practice have it look however you want effortlessly. For now, we'll go back to the temple." As Aang spoke, the buildings rose from the ground and sun appeared through the black roof. Grass sprouted anew and the sounds of birds quietly chirping and a stream trickling by slowly filled the air.

"Also, with practice, the time you spend in here can increase from your maximum of eight hours here for eight hours of sleep to about a week for eight hours of sleep. Any questions?"

Naruto calmly nodded his head no, but inside was thinking, 'This is so freaking awesome I can't believe it how does this work again?'

Seeing Naruto apparently focusing, the monk continued. "Next is a very important lesson. I need to show you the difference between chakra and chi, and I need you to keep it a secret. Everyone has some amount of chi and we don't want you to have to face benders as well as ninja. I'd assume you already know what chakra really is, but I remember you needed the explanation in Wave and you probably need a refresher. Regardless," spoke the monk as he sat down in the grass where they had been standing, crossing his legs and motioning for Naruto to do the same, "chakra is physical and mental energy. It is a combination of your strength and body with your mind and thoughts. Your stamina and sheer amount of chakra is huge, but because of your lack of focus and, unfortunately, your poor education you have trouble with controlling it. Jutsu need both to work.

"On the other hand, bending uses chi, pure spiritual energy. While it is true that it still requires focus and a certain level of physical strength to bend, these do not control the elements: merely how you use them. Yet again, you have an extremely large amount of chi due to your strong personality. Combine that with the fact that all Avatars have a lot of chi and you're pretty much limitless there." Aang smiled while he continued, able to see the stars in Naruto's eyes.

"I guess there are three more major differences with bending and jutsu. First, chakra is centered at the heart and flows in specific paths throughout your body called tenketsu. Chi is centered in your stomach, travels in your veins, and can be released anywhere on the body. Secondly, jutsu require hand seals and the like while bending does not. Third, and bending's greatest weakness, is taijutsu. Ninjutsu are used to complement and add to taijutsu, but bending requires you to use taijutsu of certain styles for the best effect. When it comes time, I'll show you what I mean exactly but it roughly translates to me teaching you a taijutsu style."

Even this promise was amazing for Naruto. All he had been using was a rough form of the academy style because they hadn't cared to teach him well. He might not have understood all Aang was saying, but he'd get it in time.

Aang looked into his student's eyes and saw that he was a little overwhelmed. Perfect timing for the jutsu work, then, because he knew Naruto did his best with hands on work. "I'm not sure I've told you this yet, but I don't know that many jutsu. I didn't come from this world and I've only learned what I've seen others do. However, I know something you don't about shadow clones." This peaked Naruto's interest as it was possibly his favorite jutsu.

"What is it?" he asked, practically bouncing despite the fact that he was sitting.

"You learn whatever they learn. If you sent one out in search of a friend and it dispelled after finding your person, you would know where the person is. Also, if you were to train with a couple hundred at once, you'd get that many times more experience than just doing so by yourself. Get what I'm saying?"

And at that, Naruto had to facepalm. He thought of all the times he had used shadow clones for chores and knew when the chores were done. He thought of how he used them for pranks and knew when the prank was ready. As the obvious memories came streaming to him they were projected into his mind scape for Aang to chuckle at. "Yes sensei," the boy said while similar memories continued to appear.

"Good then. Also, I've been at work pushing chakra through your arm as you've been sleeping. When you wake you should see the air symbol on your wrist. Wipe blood on that like you do for summoning and you should get a shadow clone that looks like me and has all my knowledge. You won't get my knowledge when it dispels, though, because you are merely allowing me to form a shadow clone. That will be how we train in the real world. Got it?" Naruto nodded dutifully.

"In that case, we'll get down to business with your training. We need to start by allowing you to feel both your chi and chakra separately, so I'll be teaching you proper meditation." And Aang did just that. For the three hours left in Naruto's sleep, they sat and focused until Naruto could feel the difference and pull on one at will. They even practiced calling forward both at once. Naruto faded from the space as the morning sun hit his face and all Aang could think was, 'This one really does have potential.'

xxxxxxxxxx

With a groan, Naruto's body woke well rested. Apparently both sleeping and meditating did that for you. He ate, showered, and headed off towards training ground nine. Last night at the ramen stand Shikimaru told him that that was their usual practice spot, though Naruto suspected it had much to do with the tables set up for Shogi that were scattered around the grounds. Little did he know that Sakura, too, had gotten up early. After preparing for the day, she made a bento for Sasuke and left the house. As she went to her crush, she passed Naruto.

He must have been deep in thought as it seemed he didn't notice her. So she called out to him. "Hi, Naruto."

He seemed to snap out of it and, in his usual loud voice, responded with a, "Good morning, Sakura-chan. How are you doing today?"

She smiled. "Pretty well. I was just heading to see Sasuke. Did you want to come?" She hoped he said no so she could get some alone time with the brooding boy.

"No." Yes. "I have to go train. See you around." He started forward but Sakura decided she hadn't said enough.

"Naruto?" she called out to him, "Thank you. For saving me and Sasuke. Just, thanks." With that she hurried along, not sure he heard but too embarrassed to repeat it.

Little did she know that he had heard it. And despite his crush on her, he just wasn't sure about how he felt towards her anymore. He now knew that she wasn't the perfect girl. She definitely wasn't as strong as some as the kunoichi their age, and many of those stronger girls didn't have her abusive attitude. He still thought Sakura was beautiful, but so were many of the other girls. Tenten, Ino, Temari, Hinata, and the list goes on and on. So why was he so obsessive about her?

Maybe because she had been nice to him when they were small? Now she just hit him for caring about her life. Maybe because it was a way to compete with Sasuke? But even those days had ended. He would always be friends with the avenger, but he had recently found out that he could use pretty much all jutsu with relative ease and bend as well. It would even be hard for the Sharingan to match that. Maybe it was just to get attention and, now that he had it from people who really cared, he didn't need it from her anymore. Regardless of the fact she was his teammate and still a precious person of his, it was time for him to break out of his crush on her. Or it would be tomorrow, he told himself. Inside of his mind, Aang was slowly influencing Naruto's thoughts, not because he wanted control of the boy but because he was meant to guide this new Avatar in the right direction. He only wanted the best for his kit.

Naruto was only broken out of his funk when he heard Asuma call to him, "Hey! Where are you going? I thought Jiraiya said you were going to train with us today." He had walked to his destination without noticing the journey there. But now, it was time to take his first step on the road to his destiny.

"Yeah, Asuma-sensei, sorry," he said, running up to the man and his team with a bright smile on his whiskered face.

"I was told to give you a test today, Naruto."

"Ahhh, a test?" whined the blonde. He hated tests.

Asuma only laughed though. "Don't worry; it's not that kind of test." He reached into a pocket and pulled out four pieces of paper, though one was noticeably larger than the others. He continued to talk as he passed out the papers, handing the large one to Naruto. "When you channel your chakra into the papers you'll find out what kind of nature affinities you'll have. They make jutsu of those elements easier and tell you ones you'll struggle with. I'm having my team figure theirs out too."

Ino started, her paper getting soggy. "That means you've got water, Ino," informed Asuma. Aang started laughing, but refused to say why. Chouji's crumbled and was informed he had earth. Shikimaru's turned to ash, indicative of fire.

At this point Naruto spoke up, "So why's my paper bigger?"

Taking his cigarette from his mouth and breathing out a long exhale he simply replied, "I heard you might have more than one very strong affinity. More scraps to examine this way."

It caused Aang to really lose it, laughing uproariously. "He's right, kit. Do it and see."

Taking the paper and closing his eyes, a very slight, almost imperceptible, glow came from his whisker marks - more of a quick glisten than anything else. He opened his eyes for the same flash of light that was so quick as to be nearly unnoticeable, before he channeled chakra to the paper. The paper shined a bright white before, promptly, seemingly fading from existence. As Asuma and the others merely stared at where paper used to be, Asuma's cigarette falling forgotten from his mouth, Aang fell over laughing at their blank and awed expressions.

Naruto was staring at the lack of paper for a second or two as well before he just smiled and put his hands behind his head. "My sensei told me I had every affinity. I didn't know what would happen."

Asuma slowly tore his attention away from the now nonexistent paper. "Yeah. Neither did I," he said, reaching for the cigarette he apparently thought was still in his mouth and fumbling around before he realized how foolish he looked. He started to light another cig as he spoke again. "Well. Then. Let's work on wind, I guess." He turned back to his team who had, by now, recovered and were just beginning to go back to their normal mannerisms.

"I want you to start working on exercise twelve while I teach Naruto how to focus on his wind chakra." Shikimaru groaned, Chouji grunted, and Ino whined, but they dutifully went to do as instructed: some combination between tree walking and dodgeball - with kunai. Regardless, Asuma continued unconcerned. "Okay," he said while picking up a leaf that had fallen to the ground, "your goal is simple. Cut the leaf with chakra."

Naruto took the leaf from Asuma's outstretched hand, expecting to be able to do this on his first try and failing. Asuma laughed as he looked at Naruto's obviously disappointed face. "You didn't expect to get this on try one, did you? It's a jounin skill, after all. I'll give you a hint if you want."

Naruto wanted to accept, but knew it was cheap. As someone who was supposed to be in tune with all of the elements he shouldn't take shortcuts to control them. "Thanks, Asuma-sensei, but no thanks. Give me just one second." He made his hands into his favorite seal and, after some a little concentration and a shit ton of chakra, the training area was covered in smoke that cleared to show over a thousand Naruto's, each with a leaf. "I'll get this by myself."

Ignoring the flabbergasted looks the others were giving him as, although they had heard the stories of his one man army, they had never seen him do such a thing before. Each Naruto focused on the leaf, trying his own unique methods to cut the leaf. It was only one clone who took the word cut to heart. 'Maybe,' thought the clone, 'if I make it thin and intense, sharp almost, it would work.' The clone focused and a half hour later had made a very small cut in the leaf. He did a fist pump in the air at his success until another clone hit it and dispelled it because it was jealous of his success.

All of a sudden the Naruto's all made a face of "oh I get it" before proceeding to using the cutting method. As each progressed farther, it dispelled to share knowledge. In three hours of time there were only ten Naruto clones left and, as the original could now easily split a leaf at will, they dispelled. When Asuma noticed the lack of excess Naruto's he assumed that the boy had given up unsuccessfully.

Imagine his surprise when he came to give the boy advice, sympathizing because it had taken him a full week as a jounin to cut the leaf, and found the boy splitting leaf after leaf in practice. Damn brat has it too easy sometimes. Anyway, Asuma wasn't done. There was stage two. "Well, Naruto, it seems you got this exercise down rather easily. We'll move on to the next step and, if you can get that before the coming mission I heard you have in a few weeks then I'll even teach you a few jutsu. Unfortunately, we'll need a change of location to do the next part." With that, he jumped over to his team and, making a follow me gesture with his hands, disappeared into the forest with three genin and one chunin behind him, even if the lazy boy didn't yet know about his promotion.

In a quarter of an hour or so they arrived at a deep woods training ground where Asuma called a stop. The animals were going about their usual business, birds chirping and squirrels chattering. A waterfall sounded from a short distance away and a stream ran past them, the stream that would eventually go through the Uchiha district. The jounin turned to face his group and said, "Okay, team, we're going to play hide and seek with paper bombs. You have until I finish explaining Naruto's next test to hide. I will be doing the seeking. I am going to give you the next three seconds in which to leave with my eyes closed." As soon as he did so, closing his eyes and taking a deep drag of the cancer stick, the three took off at a speed much faster than Naruto had seen any of them move at the chunin exams. High explosives are good motivators, no?

After three seconds the man opened his eyes and turned towards the waterfall. After a minute's walk they arrived and started water walking on the river, straight through the waterfall and into a small, hidden cavern on the other side of the waterfall. The falls were short in drop height, but the current was strong. The river was wide when it reached the falls and was nearly three hundred feet from one side of the falls to the other. In the dull illumination of light passing through the water Naruto watched Asuma as the man took another puff of his cig which, for reasons neither Naruto nor I can understand, was still lit. Continuity error perhaps? Regardless, he took a puff before speaking. "Okay, you've got leaf cutting. Cool. Extremely quickly too, honestly, even for the amount of experience those clones gave you. Now comes the hard part. Wind jutsu use the air around you, turning small airborne particles as well as the gases that make air itself into a blade. Your weapon is constantly moving, shifting, and incredibly hard to focus on. The next step up from cutting a stationary solid is to cut a moving liquid. The reason why it is so much harder is because, although water is less solid, you can no longer focus on cutting one spot. You have to redirect a constantly changing stream of molecules that are fighting against you for control."

Asuma turned his back to Naruto, put a hand out to the waterfall and, with a small focus on the man's part, a slit appeared in the falls that grew into a wide gash, separating the water that passed its direction and letting more light into the shallow cavern. The blonde's eyes grew wide at the prospect of performing such a feat, and then sparkled when realizing he would soon do the same. After a moment or two, Asuma dropped his focus, turned to Naruto, and simply said, "Get cracking." As Naruto stepped up to the plate, Asuma left through the falls, cig remaining lit, and started the all too easy search for his genin team.

This time Naruto could only make about two hundred clones, and that was rather cramped as it was. After three hours time, having heard the sound of several explosions from the forest on the other side of the falls, Naruto decided to do what he had worked with Aang on. He meditated, each of him did, actually.

Sitting cross-legged and calling on his chakra, he felt what it did with his body, strengthening it. He felt it flowing through his body, expelling slowly through the tenketsu points. The sunlight came through the water in dappled blurs, a hypnotic wave pattern that played tricks on Naruto's eyes. The blue water and blue pupils matching in color and the world around him seemed to slow down. He appreciated each droplet of mist that struck his now shirtless body, cleansing the sweat from constant chakra expenditure. He heard both the beating of his heart, loud and rhythmic, as well as the roar of the waterfall, loud and droning. He slowly moved his head and followed the water upwards until he was staring at the cavern's roof where a lone drop of water hung for just a second before falling from the cold, slippery ceiling and hitting Naruto's forehead. The bass sound of the drop hitting the solid surface sudden and the vision of it splitting into millions of tinier droplets mesmerizing. And just like that it was over.

The clones dispelled as he jumped to his feet. He put his hands in front of him and, almost like pulling apart a tent's flaps, he split open the curtain of water from where he was standing to a full thirty feet to both his left and right sides. It didn't last long, but just long enough for him to make out an extremely surprised Asuma and squad. With a loud crash, the curtain dropped again, only to make a human sized hole as Naruto split the water around his body so he wouldn't get drenched further. And just like that, the blonde boy, body dripping both sweat and water, walked shirtless from behind the falls and water walked until he was halfway between the falls and the genin. The boy gave a large, confident grin as if to ask, "What's next?"

Asuma just stared at him with a slight smirk on his face. It had taken him over a year to get that damn waterfall exercise. He wasn't sure how Naruto could have gotten it so damn fast, but he was looking forward to teaching the boy a little something about wind jutsu.

Shikimaru and Chouji were shocked at what they had seen, not really able to comprehend what it could possibly mean. It was just impressive. Ino, however, saw something new. He was kind and caring, he was powerful, and even quite handsome now that she looked at him. His face may have still been a little babyish, but that would change in time as would his muscles that she took note were starting to develop. Maybe just maybe she would really have to shift her focus to-

And with that, Naruto fell into the water. Asuma jumped in and hauled the boy to shore. He performed CPR and, thankfully Naruto coughed up his water. When he woke up in a few seconds, he looked up and saw a concerned Ino leaning over him. "Is this heaven?" he asked, genuinely not certain.

Her cheeks flushed a deep red and, not sure of what to do, pulled a Sakura, slapping him in the face and yelling, "Idiot!"

A few hours later found them sitting and eating barbeque at Asuma's usual joint. The girl had been unusually bashful around Naruto and had yet to talk to him, the blonde boy just mumbling about how chakra exhaustion, even minor as his case had been, was a bitch. The girl couldn't take it anymore and, interrupting the conversation the others were happening, blurted out a, "Sorry, Naruto." The others looked at the poor girl as she blushed red once again. "I wasn't thinking and I didn't want to punch you. You're actually a pretty nice guy." Not knowing if and when she would be going too far, she stopped talking and just stared at her plate.

Her blush and embarrassment just increased as Naruto placed his hand over hers which was resting on the table. "Don't worry, Ino. I've gotten a lot worse from other girls I've liked." He said it so genuinely she didn't doubt either his honesty or rather chaste intentions. It made it a little easier.

That night, when Naruto wen into his mind scape he found himself back on the river in front of the waterfall, Aang on the shore. The monk cracked open an eye as his pupil sat down next to him to meditate. "Good job." His voice seemed to resound in the beautiful scene surrounding them. "But, just so you know, I'm not satisfied with you splitting the water yet. It took you much too long to focus it during training, time you would not have in a real fight." His look of peaceful reproach was quickly replaced with a kind smile, however. "But still, to do so much in a day is quite a feat, even if air and wind will be the easiest for you to get."

Naruto's face beamed with happiness as Aang donned a smirk. "So, kit, you ready to learn some very basic bending exercises?" Wind manipulation and air bending all in one day? And checking back in with Shikimaru, Sakura, and Chouji? Even possibly a real friend with Ino?

"Hell yeah!" was Naruto's response, both to training and to life.

**And that is where I stop for the night. The chapter has been slightly edited, though not so much that one really needs to reread it.**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. ****Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	3. The Edge of the Old World

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Credit out to emilbootanimefreak, riosho, mattcun, hartman227, god of all, Uzumaki Crossover, shadow 12, CrystalBud, and NaruHinaAlways for the reviews. Especially emilbootanimefreak for giving an opinion and advice.**

**Edge of the Old World**

Naruto half expected his body to be sore when he woke up, but, of course, that wasn't going to happen. Sure, he trained with Asuma sensei and his team for four hours each day and then with Aang for the equivalent of ten hours each night, but when you are the Avatar, a chakra beast, and contain a nearly literal chakra "beast," that kind of thing just didn't affect you as much. Especially since the meditation he practiced with Aang helped speed up the healing.

No, the boy was excited. Today was his last day before he left Konoha with Jiraiya on a highly important mission. The town was still weird without a Hokage, and the mission system had been temporarily screwed up. Other than rebuilding tasks, no real missions had been given unless they were pertinent to Konoha's survival. That's why, despite the fact that two weeks had just about passed, Asuma's team was never assigned any serious missions and why he was happy for the upcoming trip; he needed to stretch his legs a little bit.

Regardless, it was time to train. He left his dingy little apartment, the sun not yet visible over the Hokage monument, and traveled to today's training ground. He performed a harsh regiment of pushups, laps, leg lifts, and other cardio, all with weights to make it harder. Once he had finished his last set of leg lifts, he jumped to his feet, disregarding the weights still on them. It seemed that he had taken to wearing them permanently. With a drop or two of blood and a little chakra, a monk materialized next to him with a friendly smile on his face. "Now, Naruto, it is time to spar and see if what we learned last night can be put to use," the man said. He might have been genial but he was right to the point.

At the heart of all things, Aang couldn't bend elements anymore. In the mindscape where they practiced each night he could force the malleable world around them to make it appear he did so, but it wasn't true. He could demonstrate what it looked like, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't feel it. In this clone body, however, he gained some of it back. Some of Naruto's chi ran through the clone and, even if Aang couldn't pull out his landscape altering attacks, he certainly could sense the flow of chi with ease and help out his pupil while defending himself.

Naruto cut an impressive figure now, as Ino had dragged a "willing" Naruto out shopping the other week. Now, although orange was still part of his wardrobe, it was much more flashy and dashing (and not hazard warning orange but a dusky orange) than gaudy. "Yes, Aang-sensei!" Naruto replied and, after throwing his jacket – still orange but much more practical and, I'll say it again, not as damn gaudy as the old outfit – to the side, leaving him in only a tight black muscle shirt and the black Anbu pants he had started wearing since the shopping trip, their dance began. It was, seemingly, acrobatic and harmless. One could barely see the air as it was pushed between benders, barely feel the breeze as it was expelled from fists and feet. But, slowly, it seemed a draft blew through the clearing. Attacks gained intensity and the trees started to bend and sway in the gale force wind. Trees lost leaves and small branches as the two flipped and cartwheeled, exchanged volleys of fists and volleys of compressed wind. It all ended quickly, unfortunately, as Aang did not have the chi capacity that Naruto did. The blonde experimented, combining the cutting of wind chakra with the force of air bending, and sent out a huge gust of wind which Aang barely dodged. The tree to his right, however, was not so lucky.

The tree was cut right through diagonally before several smaller cuts, each leaving slice marks several inches deep appeared all over the tree. Finally, the slower moving air bending gust caught up to the wind chakra and all of the sliced wood flew away while what remained splintered. There was one less tree on the edge of their clearing.

As Aang surveyed the damage and started to clap, Naruto stood in place panting. It was an hour long give and take spar. It had been exhausting. "Amazing," commented the kitsune monk. "It took me years to gain this level you have right now. However," he added thoughtfully while his lone red tail languidly swayed from side to side, "you have a good teacher, a good motivator, and some of the best natural talent I have ever seen. The fact that you are actually very mature probably helps. I suppose it would be shocking if you weren't at this level already." At this, the blonde gave a beaming smile. "However, getting stronger only gets harder from here and your reason can no longer be a mere motivator. If you want to gain true strength you'll need your reason to train to become a reason to be."

At this Naruto looked at him with an uncomprehending look in his eyes, slightly upturned as if trying to figure it out. "But sensei," he spoke quietly, "you know my reason to be. How could I not follow it?"

Aang had to be careful with what he said next or it wouldn't mean as much when Naruto figured it out. "But that is your problem. You are not following it, you are following _them_." The blonde seemed stumped at what he meant. Who were _they_? He wondered. Aang just smiled as his pupil tried to figure it out.

"I must dispel, kit," he said, back to the affectionate names now that he was off of sensei duty. "Your friends draw near."

"Bye, nii-chan," the boy said as the fox monk left in a small poof of smoke. Mere moments later, Shikimaru, Chouji, and Asuma walked into the clearing, talking about dinner last night – one of the few nights that Naruto had not joined them. He had gotten to know this group well over the last two weeks, and was now quite friends with each of them. Lazy Shika, loyal Chouji, and sexy In- wait, where did that thought come from? And better yet, where was she?

Now, mind you, the hard part was getting up that early. She grabbed breakfast and ran out the door, even her seemingly omniscient mother not noticing. She was curious. Every day, Naruto beat them to training and, despite his nonchalance, he must be going at it every morning. If the grounds around him were any indication, he tore apart training grounds and trees, logs cut in half and deep grooves in the ground.

Sometimes when she came to practice, she could see the trees dancing to what seemed to be a localized hurricane. Once she even saw a mysterious figure puff into smoke when she entered the clearing, though she never got a good look at him. And today, she decided, would be different. She would no longer wonder who the blonde enigma was.

And she was not disappointed. Only minutes after she had arrived at some God-forsaken hour, he arrived as well, bright and cheery as ever. After doing all manner of warm ups that she expected would have been a full work out for her, he more or less summoned a man with a tail. At first she was shocked, by the summoning, the tail, the muscle displayed on the man's bare chest, and then even more so when Naruto took of that jacket she had helped him pick out last week. The muscles he was starting to build were evident even through the tight shirt he still wore. She, of course, wouldn't mind examining them closer at some point in time, but now was not for focusing on that. However, that didn't stop the slightest bit of coloring from rising to her cheeks.

And then they started to fight. At first, Ino wasn't sure what they were doing. Everything looked so harmless and graceful. It was, almost, beautiful. It was calm and refreshing like a cool breeze on a hot day. And as she watched, the trees started to sway. And then twigs started to break. The fight escalated and now, though still graceful, it was strong and unstoppable. A few saplings were uprooted and dust flew through the air as the wind tore through the area. It was, quite simply, awe inducing. It all ended when Naruto, using chakra for the first time in the fight, shot out a nearly invisible blade of wind. The tailed man dodged, and Ino almost jumped out of her shoes when the tree she was hiding in was cut off right above her head and small slices appeared all around her on the trunk of the tree that she had ducked behind. A small strand of blonde hair fell in front of her face, only to be blown away with the cut wood as another gust came by, almost knocking her off of the branch she was standing on and certainly taking all structural integrity away from her hiding spot.

She dared to peek her head around the corner to see that the fight had ended. The man was talking with Naruto, and the normally upbeat boy seemed to become extremely thoughtful and almost sad when the tailed man said something. She wasn't close enough to hear it all, but something was said about true strength and a reason to be. She didn't hear what he was supposed to be, or what the reason was, but she knew that her favorite blonde was – wait, where did that thought come from? Anyway, Naruto was troubled about something. It was as the monk disappeared and her team emerged from the woods that she decided to appear in just a few minutes and give a good excuse for it. The one thing she couldn't get off of her mind was simple. Naruto only used chakra for one attack. So how was he controlling wind the rest of the time?

It was only a few minutes later when Asuma was having Shikimaru and Chouji spar while Naruto was tested on remembering his fuuton jutsu, Asuma had taught him. He had Fuuton: Daitoppa mastered and was good enough at Fuuton: Kazekiri no Jutsu, Reppusho, Hien, and Kazewo Suraisu to use in combat though, especially with Hien, he could not claim to be a master. It was upon Naruto finally managing to extend a kunai's length by five inches, though the length was constantly varying due to his inexperience with the technique, that Asuma declared Naruto's Hien passable and that Ino joined them for training.

Although his team wasn't bad, Asuma knew they still had a way to go. Especially when they were compared with a prodigy like Naruto. Their work ethic was improving, but still not excellent as was proved by Ino showing up late to training. And that's why he decided a three on one sparring match could be fun. InoShikaCho stood on one side of the training ground and Naruto on the other. As soon as the match started, it was over.

Chouji barreled in using the while Ino leapt into the trees to hide and Shikimaru prepared for a Kagemane no jutsu. Unfortunately, all it took was a massively over powered Fuuton: Reppusho from Naruto blow the boy back and into a tree trunk, knocking him unconscious from the blow. By the time Naruto had finished the jutsu, however, Shikimaru had caught him using the Kagemane no jutsu. Ino flashed through hand seals to use the Shintenshin no Jutsu on Naruto. As soon as her soul entered the blonde, however, it disappeared in a poof of smoke, showing that it had only been a shadow clone. The real Naruto appeared behind Shikimaru and used Fuuton: Daitoppa to take him out the same way Chouji had gone: headfirst into a tree. As soon as the first jutsu was complete, Naruto performed Fuuton: Kazekiri towards the tree Ino's body was in. The tree was cut through and the section the girl was in started to topple over.

But Ino couldn't move. Her soul was still in process of returning to her body. It was in a rush of concern for his friend that Naruto revealed his air bending. He charged his legs with chakra and pushed a gale of wind backwards to leap forward at drastic speeds. Her soul returned to her body just before she would hit the ground and a panicked feel swept through her body as she realized the tree would fall on top of her. But she needn't have worried as Naruto performed an aerial kick, air bending a giant blast of compressed air to kick the tree in a new direction as he used the force he gained from pushing off on the tree to leap forward faster through the air and catch Ino in his arms before she hit the ground.

Ino slowly opened her eyes, expecting a face full of dirt and immense pain, but instead finding two orbs of deepest blue examining her, checking if she was alright. They were full of care and concern, and she found herself blushing as he held her against her muscled chest. She subconsciously tilted her face down so that he couldn't see it and turned into his chest to hide. It worked until he called her name. "Ino?" he asked and she had to look up at him this time," are you all right?" The sun shone through his golden locks and his tone was genuine. She flushed brighter before nodding and fussing to be put down. He did so gently.

Naruto didn't believe her. Something was wrong with Ino. He noticed that she was brushing off her skirt and fiddling with her hair – something he found amazingly cute – but refused to make eye contact. Something had to be wrong if brash, confident Ino couldn't look him in the eye. He gently put one hand under her chin and lifted her face to meet his. "Are you sure you're all right?"

And this time she smiled, though the blush didn't leave her face. "Yeah, Naruto. I'm fine. Thanks," she said in a somewhat demure tone. As Ino reexamined Naruto, both body and soul, he found himself doing the same to her. Maybe, they thought, maybe this could be something-

Only to be interrupted by a wolf whistle. Chouji had, apparently gotten up from his slouch on the ground and was giving a stereotypical teenaged boy chuckle at the two. Of course, Ino being Ino and Naruto finding himself more chill than usual ever since the revelation about his true destiny resulted in the girl making the retort. "Hey! Quiet tubby!"

The boy just snorted a little at that, patted his belly, and walked off towards Shikimaru. The blondes could just hear him say something under his breath about how "tubbies rule" before he was out of earshot. Even the small mumble made them both sweat drop. They turned back to each other, only to turn a subdued tone of red as they realized they had managed to grab for each other's hand during the exchange with the Akimichi. Naruto tried to let go, almost expecting to get pounded into the ground – something Sakura would do – only to be surprised when Ino tightened her grip just enough to stop his hand from leaving hers, though she turned her head just a little away from his when she did so, just enough so that Naruto couldn't see her beautiful gray-blue eyes from where he stood.

For a second, Naruto just stood there, shocked by her near admission that she was very interested in him. Then he put on one of his award winning smiles and gently squeezed her hand back to show he felt the same. The moment of silence was broken, however, as Asuma, who had been walking towards them ever since the fight ended, clapped slowly. He reached up, took his cigarette from his mouth, and blew a long stream of smoke from his mouth straight up into the air. "Good job, blondie."

Ino gave a slight snort. Asuma had tried to call her that when she was assigned to be his student. Needless to say, it only took one good threat of castration to stop that. Second, duh, Naruto had done a good job. In three moves, well, five with the Kage Bunshin and likely replacement, he had soundly defeated all three of them. And their squad was said to have the most flawless teamwork out of any of the genin teams.

"But," the smoker continued, "I was wondering if you could tell me what those sealless jutsu were that you used." Ino looked over to him. She hadn't seen him push off of the ground, but she had seen him blast away that tree. Come to think of it, it could be the explanation behind how he was fighting without chakra this morning.

The boy's smile dipped just a bit as his hand, the one not attached to Ino's, came up to rest behind his head. "I wish I could tell you, but I can't. It's related to why I have five elements to choose from, why I have found a new love for meditation, and even to my, well, tenant. However, I might have already said too much on a fairly classified subject."

As Asuma and the boy continued to talk, Ino pondered the growing mystery that was Uzumaki Naruto. Why did he have five elements when even some jounin only had two? Why was he so much more calm and collected than before the invasion? What did he mean by his "tenant?" And why couldn't she get him out of her head?

Every day after practice, they went out to eat. And she always caught herself drawn to him. She'd sit next to him, and hang off of every word he said. She'd laugh more at his jokes, and feel her own sorrow at his troubles. Little did she know that he felt the same about her. Her father had always told her that the life of the average shinobi is short. He said that if she found something equivalent to love and a great guy, then to go for it. Life moves, and ends, quickly. You just have to move that much faster.

Soon, however, Chouji interrupted the guys' conversation and her thoughts as he dragged back their laziest teammate. "Naruto," he said pensively, "I think you might have gone at it too hard." They all gave a concerned look at the Nara, only for a snot bubble to escape his nose and a snore to join it. The lazy bum was simply sleeping contentedly. On impulse, the platinum blonde haired girl jumped into bossy mode and started, in classic anime style, to beat the unconscious boy senseless for wasting their time.

Training continued, each of the InoShikaCho trying harder than usual to fix their mistakes made apparent by Naruto while the Avatar sparred with Asuma. Shika worked on his reaction speed by, more or less, playing chicken with Chouji who was in his bowling ball of doom form. It also helped Chouji who realized he needed more maneuverability in his jutsu. Ino simply practiced her aim, projection speed, and return speed of her mind switching jutsu. By the end of the day she had decreased return time by a good three seconds – a timeframe equivalent to life or death in a true fight between shinobi. Now, the family trio simply sat and watched the jounin and the blonde boy fight.

As the sun sat low in the sky, the first traces of a vibrant sunset visible over the horizon, Asuma blocked Naruto's Hien powered kunai with his Hien powered trench knife and, with a huge surge of what chakra he had left after sparring for hours, managed to cut through the boy's knife and set the blade against his neck. "Do you yield?" the tired jounin asked. He had gone pretty much all out and, despite always having the upper hand, he had been hard pressed to maintain the advantage.

Thus the cause of his surprise when Naruto simply responded, "Not yet!" and slit his throat with the blade. Horror was replaced with horror as a voice from across the field called out, "Bunshin Bakuha!" and Asuma was enveloped in a rather large explosion. A fairly uncut Naruto approached the beat up Asuma, only for Asuma to disperse as a shadow clone. The blonde could only give a slight grin as the real one appeared behind him. "Yes, now I yield." The knife was taken away from his throat.

"So, blondie, where did you learn that from? I've never seen Kakashi use it and I certainly don't use shadow clones too often," the man pondered aloud as he sheathed his blades and pulled out a carton of cancer sticks.

Ino was wondering something similar. The blonde, despite being only a genin (albeit a powerful genin), had been keeping pace with Asuma, an elite jounin. And she had thought that that clone explosion technique could have sealed the deal. The only person who had seemed nonchalant at the power of the close range jutsu was Shikimaru, and even then Ino had seen that little light in his eyes that meant he was paying careful attention, analyzing each move, and genuinely caring, even if it was troublesome.

Indeed, Shikimaru had been analyzing everything. Naruto may still be a knucklehead at strategy, but he was amazing at just going with it and managing to pull off great combos and moves. Not only that, but the Nara boy could tell Naruto was holding something, maybe multiple somethings, back. And that intrigued him.

Chouji, though fairly smart, was both the least intelligent member of the team, and the most expressive at the outcome of the fight. His mouth was dropped, bag of chips forgotten, as he wondered how the class clown not only beat their squad, but was on near equal footing with their sensei when just over a month ago he had struggled to defeat Kiba.

Naruto gave a foxy grin, eyes slanting slightly, teeth showing, head tilted slightly to one side. "Let's just say that I've learnt techniques from you, Kakashi, and one very old teacher who only asked I provide lodging in return."

"Ah, that would make sense. If it's who I'm thinking of, I'm sure he's picked up a technique or two along the way, huh?" The man thought about it for a second, not sure what to think about the fact that a demonic fox was teaching his student. But, well, he didn't really care. He was told by the elders, Danzo of all people included, that the fox was on good terms with the boy and didn't really hate Konoha all that much, well, except for a righteous anger at some of Naruto's worse persecutors. "Well, where do you all feel like going tonight?"

And that got Chouji bouncing up and down yelling about his family's barbeque joint while Shikimaru nodded consent. Naruto relented as they had gone to Ichiraku's yesterday, but the boy noticed his fellow blonde seemed, well, not as outspoken as usual. When they all got up and went into town, he took her hand in his. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Well," she started, finding it odd how easy it was to ask Sasuke out and how hard it was to make a move with Naruto. "Would you be interested, maybe, in not eating with the team tonight?"

"Maybe," said the blonde, wondering why she wouldn't want to eat with the guys. Only with him. And then it hit. Was she asking him to- no way. "What did you have in mind?"

Ino's face turned just a little pink in the smallest of blushes. She freed her hand from his and turned to look him in the eyes. His beautiful blue eyes. And then she looked at the ground instead. It was less embarrassing if he didn't get it or said no this way. "I thought that maybe you could meet me at my house in an hour and have dinner with my family." She looked up, worried about his response, only to be struck with sadness as he had run forward to catch up with the guys.

Maybe he didn't feel the same way about her. And then he ran back. "I told them we were going to eat somewhere else tonight." And a smile lit up her face. He did feel, at least somewhat, the same way.

"Okay," she said with a small giggle that he found he really liked. "So, you know where I live. Be there in an hour and dress up a little." With that she ran off towards home and, staring after her for a second, he started walking home. It was just a few minutes away, after all, and it wouldn't take him too long to get ready.

As he leisurely walked home, he felt an inconsistency somewhere around him. It was a technique Aang had taught him – detecting chi. People in this world, Aang claimed, knew all about disguising and hiding chakra. But no one even knew about chi, so no one would bother to hide it. This, Aang said, would be a great surveillance technique on missions and, well, everywhere. Naruto practiced it nonstop and now it was slowly becoming second nature. And the chi he felt was odd. It was indecisive, and pained. Longing, even, though what for he didn't know.

With that in mind, he stealthily made a shadow clone a ways off and replaced himself with it. The clone continued to walk down the road, appearing as if nothing was wrong, while the real Naruto quietly approached the source of chi only to find Hinata behind fence, activated Byakugan focusing on the clone and tuning out everything else.

"What was that spike in chakra?" she mumbled aloud. "I could always ask hi- no, no I couldn't ask him. I can never ask him anything." The veins around her eyes receded and her normal, lavender eyes closed as a single tear leaked out. "I can never talk to him. I can't approach him without a blush, or talk to him without a stutter. And I'll never be able to tell him that I admire him, that I think he's the most amazing guy ever." Her tears started to increase, falling faster down her smooth, porcelain cheeks. "And it's all because I'm so weak."

"Well, now I know. Actually I've known for a while, but I've always been waiting for you to say something. And you do know you're not weak, right?" She whipped her head around so fast that Naruto feared it'd snap, but it didn't. Her eyes went wide in realization before she bent up into a slight sitting fetal position, face hidden behind her folded up knees as if she could hide. However, it didn't hide the sounds of sniffling and tears.

"D-don't pity me, Naruto. I k-know how hard you work, how poorly you're treated. And here I am, crying because I'm afraid. H-how could someone like you like a failure like me?" She sniffed once more before her head raised from its position and she found blue eyes staring into hers, concern shining through.

He placed his palm against her cheek, and wiped away a tear that was still dripping down her face. "Hinata, I don't care for worthless people or worthless things, and I don't have pity for anyone. You are not worthless, and I do care for you." He gave a smile. "I've known you for years, and I've seen you always try your best. You are not a failure. I just don't know you well." He backed up a little. "If you want," he continued, "we could change that."

He watched as the girl shook her head yes. "I-I would l-love to know you better, Naruto-kun."

"And I would love to get to know you better, Hinata-chan."

He just called me Hinata-_chan_ she squealed in her mind before her Naruto levels reached max capacity and she fainted.

"Um, you okay there?" he asked. On inspection, though, the girl was just peacefully passed out with a smile on her still tear-streaked face.

"She'll be alright," came a voice from around the corner of a nearby house. Neji stepped out from and bowed. Naruto already assumed fighting position, assuming the boy to be after Hinata for some reason. "And I won't harm her. I've actually come to be her friend in the past week," he continued. Naruto looked unsure, but dropped his stance. "She really does like you, you know," Neji said, giving a smile that seemed less smug and more genuine than those he gave at the exams. He walked forward and picked her up piggy back. "I'll take her back to the complex." He started to walk off until Naruto called out.

"Hey, what were you doing out here anyway?" the blonde asked.

Neji turned back to face him. "To guard her as is my responsibility in the branch family. And to find you. I want say thank you. I owe you very much, Naruto-san, and I wanted you to know that I am sorry for the exams and, well the way I have always treated Hinata." The boy turned away again. "I am in your debt." And with that he jumped to the rooftop of the nearest house and took off towards the Hyuga complex.

Naruto smiled at the scene before taking off himself. He had a date – well, at least a dinner – to get ready for and he had to shower and change before he showed up at Ino's. 'I wonder how dressed up she meant,' he thought as he took off towards home.

XXXXXXX

The Yamanaka house was busy. Ino's mother hadn't made dinner for a guest for a while and she had decided to pull out all the stops. Ino's father was picking up the place and, ever since she had informed them that she had invited a friend over to dinner, Ino had disappeared upstairs to get ready. Ino's father, Inoichi, laughed at the situation. It was obviously a boy that was coming over and he wondered how much threatening he could do before the boy ran off or his wife smacked him. It wouldn't do for their little girl to get into a bad relationship.

The doorbell rang just as Inoichi had finished cleaning up the area and his wife, Akiko, had just finished with putting the food out. "I'll be down in just a second! Can you get it, Daddy?" called Ino from upstairs, no doubt putting on her finishing touches and checking herself in the mirror for the umpteenth time.

"Yes, dear!" he called up the stairs before going to the door. He opened it and found, as expected, a dashing young man. However, he didn't even recognize who it was at first. The boy was dressed in a subdued dark orange long-sleeve sweater that easily showed off his improving musculature without being showy or inappropriate, black pants and black shoes finishing off the look. Wait, was that Naruto? "Naruto?" he voiced aloud, the question seeming stupid to even him.

"Ohayo, Yamanaka-san. How are you tonight?"

And instantly, Inoichi was alright with the kid. He had read his file, knew his life story, knew his potential, hell, he had even walked through his mind. He knew this was a good kid. Still, he was a father. "If you hurt Ino then I swear that you'll be using your backend to breather while you use your front end to-"

"Daddy!" a feminine plead, bordering on an embarrassed whine, interrupted him. "It's not like Naruto-kun and I are dating," she said as she reached the bottom step, just in front of the door and just behind her father who stepped aside to allow the boy entrance and gave Naruto his first glance at Ino. His breath left his lungs as he saw her.

She wore her hair down and fairly straight, though still teased just enough that it was flirty, several strands framing her face. She wore a purple dress with the thinnest of straps that revealed her back and the little cleavage she could have at her age. It cut off mid-thigh, short enough and formfitting enough to leave little to one's imagination, but modest enough that it appeared dressed up and flirty rather than trashy. Her arms and legs were smooth, creamy, with just the lightest of tans, and she wore short heels that left most of her feet exposed, one small purple band around the ankle and one over the toes, her toenails painted a matching light purple, the same shade that she had applied to her fingernails. She wore two small silver stud earrings with very small diamonds set in them. Her makeup was minimal just enough to draw attention to luscious lips and gorgeous eyes that popped just that little extra bit due to her purple eye shadow. All in all, she was drop dead gorgeous. At least, Naruto thought she was.

"Well, at least not yet," she added in a quieter tone. Then, looking at Naruto and noticing how he was staring as if transfixed, she spun around once to showcase her figure for him. "Like what you see?" she asked while batting her eyelashes at him as expertly as a fifteen year old girl can.

He nodded, still in awe of the goddess in front of him, before shaking his head once to get out of his funk. He gave a genuine smile, as did Inoichi, before responding. "Yeah, Ino. You're beautiful." And despite the fact that it wasn't the first time a boy her age had said something similar, for some reason it meant so much. Maybe because it was so pure and so genuine.

She blushed and turned her head aside for a second. "Thanks. You look nice too." And seeing her all flustered just caused Naruto to smile brighter.

"Well," Inoichi said, interrupting the two, "you might as well be dating the way you two are acting." He was pleased at the fact that Naruto, though he did blush, did not deny his statement. Inoichi let out a small laugh at their experience before Naruto came in and Ino, just barely shorter than Naruto now that she was in heels, grabbed his hand. "Let's introduce him to the missus." The teens followed the jounin as he walked towards the dining room where his wife was waiting.

"Oh! So is this the boy you were telling us about the other day?" her mother started off and, between her bubbly personality and the way she instantly approved of Naruto, the blondes all knew this would be a good night. And it was. The teenagers sat side by side and would periodically get lost looking at the other, Naruto experiencing something relatively new as he admired Ino's beauty. It was a good feeling, almost possessive, and definitely desiring something, though he couldn't figure out what. Ino, on the other hand, just loved the look in his eyes, a look he didn't always have. Although he always appeared happy go lucky and chipper, this look in his eyes was gentle and genuine. And there was something else in it too, a trace of protectiveness and possessiveness that made her feel safe with him.

Ino's parents caught the teens in their shy game and smiled, remembering when they first met. Inoichi remembered meeting his wife at a fairly formal occasion, her dressed up just as Ino was for Naruto. And Akiko remembered a similar look in her husband's eyes when he asked her for a dance that night. It was after dinner that Naruto and Ino decided to take a walk. "Take care of her, Naruto!" Inoichi hollered after the couple. For once, Ino just let herself be taken care of instead of shouting out how she could take care of herself. It was nice to be able to rely on someone that way for once. Naruto just gave a nod and a smile as he closed the door.

The older couple stared after them for a second. "She's growing up so fast, isn't she Inoichi?" commented Akiko.

"Yeah, almost makes me feel old. She's not allowed to grow up already," he said, a slight frown on his face, only to be replaced by a small smile a few seconds later. "But at least she found a good guy to grow up with."

"You keep talking like we're old fossils." She stood up from the table, circling around it before sitting across his lap. "I think I know a way to make you feel young again," she said, running a finger along his cheek.

"I wonder if we're thinking the same thing," he teased, shivering a little at the contact. "I guess there's only one way to find out." And with that he picked her up bridal style, carried her to the bedroom and closed the door with his foot.

All that could be heard from outside in the hall was a delighted feminine squeal of, "Ooooh, Inoichi!"

XXXXXXX

Ino and Naruto weren't being quite so physical. In fact, they were almost too embarrassed to even hold hands as they walked. Not quite, but almost. It wasn't that they didn't like each other or that holding hands was new to them. In fact, they liked each other very much and holding hands was something they had done earlier that day. But now, despite knowing the other liked them, it wasn't just two friends. It was something more, something that neither had experienced before.

And so they walked in silence, basking in each other's company, though wishing they had the nerve to speak. Ino looked over at Naruto, appraising the boy. Loyal, honest, hardworking, and now good looking were all words she could use to describe him with. She could really like this boy. Her head turned to the side, a small, shy smile on her lips. And he turned to see her.

She was confident and had the potential to be strong, just like Sakura-chan. In fact, he had already heard the story that Ino was who helped Sakura become that way in the first place. Yeah, she used to argue too much about Sasuke and all, but he was starting to see that it was only so she could have some form of relationship, even if it was competition, with her old friend. Ino-chan really was loyal. And, let's not forget, she was drop dead gorgeous in the eyes of our young jinchuriki.

They were walking through a more open area of town now, walking on a small classical bridge that ran across one of the small streams that made its way through the village. Without so much as a signal, both stopped halfway across and stared at the full moon. Ino's mother, always with a wistful tone in her voice would call it the Lover's Moon as it allowed a couple to stay out later and well, at that point her mother would just give a perverted giggle.

"It really is a beautiful moon tonight," Naruto said, catching where she was gazing.

"Yeah," she said, slowly inching closer to him.

"Whenever I see the full moon, I feel something inside me, something ancient, rise up. Almost like the moon is an old friend." Ino just gaped at the inflection in his voice. It sounded mature, wise. He saw her face and put on a smile. "Silly, huh?" Inside his head, Aang gave a small chuckle.

"Whenever I see the full moon," Ino started, "and everything is bathed in a different light, everything is that much more beautiful. It's a selfless thing, sharing its gift with everyone."

"It really does make everything that much more beautiful," Naruto said, unaware that he was getting closer and closer to Ino until he realized that he wasn't looking at the night sky anymore, but her dark blue eyes. And he found them much more beautiful than the view before them.

Ino's free hand slowly snaked up to feel his chest, though she had no recognition of telling it to do so. She stared into his bright blue eyes, hardly caring as his free arm slowly wrapped behind her head and brought their lips together. And then she closed her eyes, giving into the care filled, gentle caress of his lips against hers. They stayed that way for several minutes.

XXXXXXX

It was the next morning that was the hardest. He met with his perverted sensei near the gates, only to see several others there. Kakashi, Asuma, Chouji, Shikimaru, Hinata, and, not surprisingly his (now official) girlfriend were standing around talking while Sasuke brooded against a wall and Sakura, like usual, tried to get a date. However the surprising part was that the Elders had shown up as well.

"Uzumaki Naruto," said Danzo when the boy came a little closer. "I must have you know that we are enacting the clan restoration act upon you. We just passed that bit of litigation yesterday, but I felt you had the right to know as soon as possible."

Naruto scrunched up his nose in confusion. "What does that mean, Shimura-sama?" asked Naruto, trying to be as formal as he knew how. These people were both powerful and, currently, supportive. It would not do to change that.

"It means," said Asuma with only a bit of a lecherous sparkle in his eyes, "that you're legally going to need to have at least four wives by the end of your eighteenth year."

"What?" was the instant response by Naruto, Hinata, and Ino. Shikimaru just patted his friend on the back.

"Good luck, man. It was nice knowing you."

"Shika," Ino growled threateningly.

"Just, kidding," he said cautiously as he slowly back away, hand up as if surrendering. "Troublesome woman," was just barely heard, muttered under his breath.

"But," Naruto said, not sure what to say, "but, what if they don't want to? I only know one girl I really like a lot right now, even if I have a couple of friends who are girls. And what if they don't want a relationship if they have to share me?"

"Well, if all fails, we will assign you a list of wives that you will have to pick from if it takes you too long," Koharu input and Naruto's attitude dropped a little farther at the thought of having little choice in his wives.

"But we will not bother you until your nineteenth birthday about that," Homura finished quickly. "Until then it's all your decision."

"I think you're forgetting the most important part, oh so honorable elders," said Jiraiya in a slightly mocking voice. They were getting better, but he still didn't trust them all the way. Now he looked at Naruto, a hard, serious glint in his eye. "If you don't have at least one child by age twenty-one, the elders will be able to have you attempt to impregnate women of their choice."

"That doesn't mean we will," Homura quickly added, "just that we could."

Naruto really didn't like that idea, even if it was only a potential to happen and not a guaranteed thing. "I guess I'll just try to do it before then." He sighed and looked a little down until Ino came up to him and kissed him full on the lips.

"I think you've already got one girl," she said with a slight giggle in her voice. "And," she looked at Hinata appraisingly, though she did blush slightly, "I don't mind sharing."

With that Naruto's smile returned and he grabbed Ino around the waist. She gave out a slight delighted, "Eep!" as he had not been quite so forward last night. He then gave her a gentler kiss on the lips, though, as both Hinata, Sakura, and (of course) Jiraiya noticed, he seemed to teasingly nibble just a bit on Ino's bottom lip before pulling away. "You don't know what that means to me," he told her quietly, thanks and love thick in his voice. Both of them knew they were moving fast, but both knew that the other had what they had always wanted. Why wouldn't they quickly fall in love with the person who had all they could love about a person?

They continued staring into each other's eyes for a second, Naruto's gaze protective and possessive while Ino's was both fulfilled but, possibly because of Naruto's teasing kiss, a little needy. In fact, she would have gone in for another if she hadn't noticed someone scribbling down in a note pad, mumbling gently to himself.

Although she couldn't make out everything Jiraiya was saying, she made out enough words to realize that this would be the perfect chance to try out that new Katon jutsu that Asuma had shown her, the most basic of all Katon and not even requiring a hand seal. "Katon: Ryuusui," and a blew a very small, though quick gout of fire at the old pervert's notes.

His look was almost comical as he began to writhe around on the ground like destroying his notes caused him intense physical damage. If one listened closely enough they could hear him talking about how the "talent shouldn't question the director" or about "his precious." Luckily, no one cared enough to listen.

Ino and Naruto parted slightly, a smile on their face at the old man's "pain," and the others came up to wish Naruto luck. Chouji and Shikimaru made fun of the couple a little until Ino's glare promised pain. Asuma just said a quick farewell while laughing at his boys' expense and Kakashi gave a similar, "Good luck!" with an eye smile included.

Next the Elders approached him. "Naruto, although you have been on one higher ranked mission before, you need to know that this mission is even more important. Not only that, but you need to keep in mind that you are traveling with one of the great Sannin," Homura said. At the words of praise, the Toad Sage leapt to his feet and was about to join the conversation, likely to brag. At least until Koharu finished. "Please try to keep him in line, Naruto." And the white-haired man face-faulted on the ground before retreating back to his corner to cry.

Danzo decided to have his say as well. "Boy, you will one day have to power to take the Hokage's seat. This is your first chance to prove you have the responsibility as well." He graced those present with a rare, yet genuine, small smile. "Good luck."

But none of that meant as much to him as what Sasuke and Sakura added. "You're still just a dobe," Sasuke started, "but you beat someone who beat me. You're not allowed to lose to anyone, or you'll make me look bad." He also gave a small smile to show he was, at least partially, joking.

Sakura added to it as well, "You've always been strong, Naruto, stronger than I ever gave you credit for." She paused before looking him in the eye and getting back that strong, louder tone she usually had. "And now that I've said it, don't screw up!" She smiled at the end of it though.

"Be s-safe, Naruto-kun," Hinata called and Naruto flashed a reassuring smile at her.

"Come on, brat," Jiraiya called and started walking out of the gate, assuming the boy would follow.

Naruto let go of Ino, though he did give her one last peck on the cheek before leaving all he knew behind. He was being trained by a Sannin, a bijuu, and an Avatar. He was going on an important mission for the village. He was in love with a beautiful girl and had a couple others interested. It was definitely beyond the edge of his old world.

Asuma and his boys decided to go for lunch before training, while the Elders left and Kakashi said he'd give his students the day off as Sasuke was fresh out of the hospital. Ino grabbed Hinata's arm, flashing her a look that said 'We need to talk' before pulling her along on a walk. Sasuke and Sakura were left alone now, staring as their former teammate disappeared in the distance. "Hey, Sasuke," Sakura started, "do you want to go-" And then she realized it. He didn't ever accept her approaches when she asked him out. Maybe though, if she asked him instead to… Well, only one way to find out. "Would you mind helping me train? I've been working on some genjutsu, but they're hard to do unless you have someone to practice with and on."

Sasuke thought about it for a second before giving an affirmative, "Hmm," and a slight nod and the two walked off together towards a training ground. Sasuke just happy that she didn't ask him out and was, for once, trying to get stronger while Inner Sakura was jumping for joy that Sasuke-kun had agreed to do anything with her. After all, once he got better if they still trained together, one on one, who knew what kind of steamy situations they could get into while sparring. And for once, Sakura didn't even try to suppress her inner thoughts. It was definitely going past the edge of her old world.

XXXXXXX

It was a lively sight for the morning, seeing a smiling Ino dragging along a Hyuuga girl, the blonde running forward, confidently, a smile on her face and Hinata stumbling on along behind, a tad confused but overall caught up in Ino's infectious attitude. Still dragging her along without slowing down the blonde looked back and caught Hinata's gaze, giving her a smile and getting one in return. "I'm just taking you to a good place to talk – a place Naruto likes a lot too." Hinata started to wonder where Ino was going after the third corner they turned. It was only ten minutes later that she started to recognize the area. Of course they were going to Ichiraku Ramen.

When they reached the outside of the stand, Ino let go of Hinata and let the girl regain her balance after she fixed her outfit for a second, she looked up and flashed Ino a small smile before the two walked into the Ramen Bar.

Ayame was just putting the first batch of handmade noodles in to cook when the girls walked in. "Ino! It's good to see you again!"

The blonde raised a hand in greeting. "It's good to see you again, too, Ayame-chan! No Naruto, today, I'm afraid. He's off on a mission. I brought a friend by, though, her name is-"

"Hinata-chan!" Ayame called in a loud, happy voice. She actually ran around the counter to give the Hyuuga girl a hug that was quickly returned.

"Hi, Ayame nee-chan," answered the girl, still quietly but not uncomfortably or with hesitation. "I'm sorry I haven't stopped by recently, but ninja stuff has been getting in the way and father doesn't want me to make ramen too much of my diet."

Ayame gave a small giggle, hidden behind her hand. "That's what Naruto used to say when he was little, that Iruka and… well… Sarutobi-sama, always told him he was going to have more ramen than blood as much as he ate. Didn't stop him though, nothing ever did." Ayame wiped away a quick tear. "I still miss Sarutobi-sama." She sniffled again before shaking her head. "Ah, jeez, why I am I trying to ruin good memories?"

Throughout everything, Ino was watching on, having taken a seat halfway through. "You two know each other? I didn't think that many people knew about Ichiraku, even if more people should."

Hinata nodded her head yes. "Yeah, I've been coming here on and off for four years or so."

Ayame nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she's always come in here right after Naruto leaves." She leaned over towards Ino, putting her hand up to whisper a conspiratory secret. "She's too shy to tell him she likes him, and she made me promise not to tell him, but in the end it doesn't matter. I'm nee-chan to both of them and they'll get together some day." The girl's eyes closed as she gave a pleasant smile.

"Actually, Ayame-chan, that's what we came here to talk about."

"Really?" asked the waitress and the shy girl at the same time.

"Yep."

Hinata looked mortified at having to talk about her secret – well, almost secret in her mind – crush on the blond, but sat down anyway. Ayame spoke up. "Well, let me take your orders so I can start on your food and I'll let you two get talking." Then her smile changed to one that was both creepy and very threatening. "Just don't crush his heart or you'll be crushed yourself, okay?"

Both girls earnestly nodded and Ayame's smile went back to normal as she took out a notepad and pencil from seemingly nowhere. She wrote down the girls' orders, vegetable ramen for Ino and miso for Hinata – she'd never admit it was only her favorite because it was Naruto's – before leaving to make the meals.

"So, Naruto's favorite, huh?" Ino asked in a knowing tone, the smallest of smug smiles on her face. Hinata let loose a loud "Eep!" She'd been found out. "I always like the vegetable because it's not too bad for you and, well, I like the taste." She let loose another smile, larger though, and dreamy. "But that's not why we're here. We're here to talk about, well, a shared taste," she winked at the end.

Hinata nodded. She had seen how Naruto and Ino were and was scared she had lost her chance until the Elders spoke about the CRA being enacted for Naruto. Her clan couldn't even make a stink about it because, as long as the wife willingly agreed to it, even clans, clan laws, and any rulings of the council could not prevent a marriage made between the subject of the CRA and his or her desired spouse. They couldn't even make a stink about it without making reparations. And that was only one of the many useful laws Hinata had learned as the daughter of the Hyuga clan's head.

But now was not the time for backing down. Though she would allow herself to blush a little. "Y-yes. I've liked Naruto-kun for a l-long time now," she started. 'Good job,' she thought to herself. 'Don't let yourself stutter.' "And, in fact, he's known about it for a while, he t-told me." She smiled to herself a little, despite being nervous. "He's just been wanting to give me the chance to work up the strength to tell him on my own, and I blew it. But he said he'd still like to get to know me more." And at this she looked up at Ino, a small fire in her eyes. "And I'm not going to pass up on that offer, no matter what anyone says." She was gaining momentum now. "I know you're his girlfriend now, but I'm not going to let anyone, even you, stop me from-"

"Okay," Ino said.

"No! I'm not going to-" she continued on, oblivious.

"I'm fine with that."

"Well I'm going to- wait, what?" asked the confused Hinata.

"Yes, what?" added a rather calm Ayame, leaning on the counter with two bowls of ramen in front of her. "Did I hear correctly that you two are both going after Naruto and that you, Ino-chan, are fine with sharing him?"

The blonde snorted. "Well, it's not like I have any choice anyway. He has to have four wives by age nineteen now and I figured that since Hinata's nice, likes him, and has a rockin' body," this causing the Hyuga to blush a deep red and sit back down, "I should encourage it. I'd rather end up being co-married with someone who I could get along with, really loves Naruto, and would be fun for, um, certain activities, than some stranger. So yeah, I'm still not in love with sharing him, but if I have to share him to have him at all, I'm going to do it. It's something daddy and I talked about this morning because he had already heard about the decision at a meeting and I told him the same thing." The blonde smiled back at the still blushing Hyuga. "And I'd have to guess that you feel the same way, right, Hinata?"

Hinata nodded her head vigorously. "Yes. I'll do anything as long as I get to be by his side."

"But that's the one thing I don't get, Hinata. If you love him so much," Ino pondered, "then why do you never talk to him?" Hinata's gaze dropped to her lap. "I get that you're shy, but you can't have a relationship if you don't talk to him." She gave a slight chuckle. "Hey," she said in a gentler tone, "don't worry. You're getting another chance. But first," she started off and Hinata looked up to her, "if you're going to join the proverbial harem of Naruto Uzumaki, I want to get to know you."

Hinata blushed at the idea. Was this really going to become a- a harem? Then again, Ino was really pretty. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the two of them were to- No Hinata! No bad thoughts! she said to herself, though she couldn't help her blush. "Yeah, I'd really like that."

"Plus," spoke up a still eavesdropping Ayame, "I heard that it still feels good to do it with another girl." She winked at Hinata, only for the girl to have a slight nose bleed before passing out.

Ino just looked at the poor girl, ramen halfway to her mouth. "Wow, never would've guessed she was a pervert, though that doesn't sound bad." She shrugged her shoulders and kept eating her ramen. Hinata would wake up soon or she'd wake her up. But first, ramen. Then, hanging out. Dating Naruto? And sharing him with other girls? This was going past the edge of her old world.

XXXXXXX

Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind: Great Breakthrough) Only a few hand seals, blasts a giant wind through the area.

Fuuton: Kazekiri no Jutsu (Wind Cutter) Requires more hand seals than Fuuton: Daitoppa, expels a single blade of air from the mouth towards a target.

Fuuton: Reppusho (Gale Wind Palm) Only a few hand signs, forces a focused blast of air the direction the palms are facing, not unlike the blasts of air created by air bending.

Hien (Flying Swallow) A high level technique in which wind chakra is sent into weapons, allowing their length to effectively increase and their cutting and piercing strength to become monstrous. Originated by Sarutobi Asuma.

Kazewo Suraisu (Slicing Wind) A bastardization of Hien and the Kazekiri no Jutsu, made by Naruto. One sends wind chakra through their limbs and releases it in a cutting arc. Requires no hand seals. Used in this chapter in the fight with Aang.

**And that is where I stop for the night. The chapter has been slightly edited, though not so much that one really needs to reread it.**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	4. Train and Trip

**I'm back. Though I'm not sure how long. Updates will be sporadic, but faster than they previously have been (in all hope).**

First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruto (I wish) and maybe a jutsu or two.

I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Credit out to all my reviewers, especially those who asked good questions about the series and offered criticism.

Training and Trip

Five days ago, four days before Naruto had left, Sasuke was still in the hospital. He was stuck with only the occasional visitor and with more than enough quiet time to sort through his thoughts. About his teammates, his brother, his sensei, his village. About Naruto. It was hard, he decided. He was falling behind. His teammate, his rival, one of the few he considered a friend, even a brother, was leaving him behind. And he was still stuck in the hospital as many council members, wishing for their Uchiha to be "undamaged," had pushed for extra recovery time. God he couldn't stand them some times.

He heard how Neji fell, he saw how Gaara fell, he watched as Sakura was saved, he had recently heard rumor of his rival even being taken in by Jiraiya as an apprentice. But… Naruto was leaving him behind. Sasuke sat in his room in the hospital, bound to be released that evening, thinking about his life. He felt a small burn on his shoulder as that blasted seal attempted to break loose. But he would beat Itachi under his own power, not rely on gifted power as, he believed, no power was truly free. But he needed to improve.

Sure, he had chased down the sand siblings, had pierced the "ultimate" defense, and had taken Temari out of the equation. But that was nothing. What happened to the Sasuke on that first C-ranked mission to wave? The time that Sasuke beat a chunin, one of the Demon Brothers, as his first real fight? Who kept Naruto alive for such a long time in that death trap of funhouse mirrors made by that Haku girl? The boy who, although shaken, brazenly took on one of the Sannin? Was that boy gone?

Suffice it to say that, when he checked out later that evening, he was still thinking along that train of thought. He almost walked into someone, muttering a small, though fairly respectful, apology before walking off, only to be stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The avenger turned around to find an older man with an eye patch and a bandaged arm. Among those signs previously mentioned, various scars on his face and the way he carried himself conveyed a very simple idea. This man had been shinobi at one point, probably jounin.

"Yes, elder?" asked the boy, attempting respect though fairly impatient.

"You are too impatient, my boy." Sasuke cringed. He was no one's 'boy.' "And you don't hide your emotions well. My name is Danzo and I was one of Sarutobi's colleagues, active in the field when he was."

Sasuke did feel some respect for the man. It was hard not to respect a man with so much experience who had managed to survive his peers and even survive his younger opponents. At his age, he had probably even fought in at least one if not all of the three great shinobi wars. "And what do you want with me, Danzo-san?"

The man gave a small, imperceptible smile. The boy was listening to his talk. "I want what you want. I want you to become stronger. I want you to improve. I want you to not be tempted by the snake's power."

But now Sasuke was ready to brush the man off. "I am doing so, just fine in fact. And I'll be on my way if you have nothing else to say." The boy started to walk off until he heard the man chuckle.

"No, I have more to say, more to offer. And you need it. Have you not even realized that I just mentioned your cursed seal?" Sasuke froze in place. How could this odd man know. He turned back towards the old shinobi. "A highly classified, well-hidden secret? Are your observation skills so low as to not pick up on that.?"

The man was silent as if asking for a response and receiving none. "I have not been on active duty since the time of peace between wars. That was when I lost the use of my arm. But I was an elite jounin, and loved my village. It is for that reason that I founded a secret group known as Root. We did the dirty missions, though necessary, that not even the Anbu would touch. We assassinated royalty, destroyed nonmilitary property of all means, sowed dissension between our enemies."

Sasuke smirked. "If they were so secret, would you really just talk about them in public like this?"

Danzo, now liking the boy's attitude a little, smirked in kind. "Look at each person within a hundred foot radius." Sasuke saw a few nurses, a young couple, a man walking by in a suit, and a maintenance worker. "Now look for the symbol on each of their right sleeves." And each person had the same symbol, in the same spot. "Did you even notice the four ninja on top of the hospital's roof, watching us?" Sasuke turned and found his words to be true as a shroud disappeared from around four nin, Sasuke's sharingan letting him see through the genjutsu that hid them from sight. "Believe you me, boy, this is a secure area. And, as I mentioned earlier, your observation skills are not up to par."

Sasuke was impressed. And a little intimidated. "So what was your offer, then?"

"Normally I teach those in Root to be able to lose all of their emotions while on the job. You, however, are an important figure in the future, bound to recreate a powerful clan if you live that long. You would only receive the barest of emotional restraint training. Instead, we would work on the other specialty of Root. You will be taught my me, by my best men, in becoming invisible, silent, the perfect spy and assassin. I know you don't believe you can catch up to Uzumaki."

Here Sasuke growled slightly. "And that is true. He has more chakra, and a particular bloodline of his own. He will, in time, always be better on the battle field and in an open fight. You, however, have amazing potential as well. He may be able to beat you in a fight, but if he becomes Konoha's image, you will become Konoha's shield, taking out threats the villagers will never know existed. You will kill Itachi, not through brute strength and flashy jutsu, but with a single well placed knife. You have more potential than I've ever seen to become the best assassin in the shinobi world." The man reached out and put a small stone in Sasuke's palm.

"You have five days. If you are interested before time is up, put chakra through that stone. If you do, there is no turning back. Farewell, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke looked down at his palm, examining the small, average stone. When he looked up, the nurses, couple, man in suit, ninja from the rooftop, maintenance worker, and Danzo himself were gone. He'd think about that offer. And think he did. It was only this morning that Sasuke had picked up the stone and, focusing with a half ram seal, charged chakra through the odd stone. "About fucking time," said a large man who had just appeared in the boy's living room. "Now," the man gave a snaggletoothed smile, "welcome to Hell."

Sakura was on cloud nine. She had been training with Sasuke for three days now, and she felt both closer and farther to him than ever. She knew him better. She got him to smile, even joke once or twice. But she realized it wasn't time for her be in a relationship with him. She was, well, obsessive and he was a broken person. But still, she was proud. Yesterday, Kakashi came by to help them train and even complemented her on taijutsu. He had never done that before.

But she couldn't find Sasuke this morning, so she decided to check the training grounds. She wandered here and there, slowly going farther and farther from the village's center, before stumbling onto a training ground that seemed empty. Until the first explosion went off. The pink haired girl fell to the ground, shaken off of her feet, as two kunoichi appeared in the clearing, kunai clashing. She watched them both gain distance, throwing shuriken while performing hand seals, only for one of the combatants to lull, as if asleep on her feet. The second woman, beautiful ebony haired woman, ran up to her, only to jump away as the purple haired woman suddenly came back to life and shot snakes from her sleeves that, oddly, weren't targeting Kurenai. No, the snakes were coming right for Sakura!

The girl took out a kunai of her own and cut as many as she could down in self-defense. But it wasn't enough. She was soon wrapped up and the snake ropes retracted to their owner, holding her upside-down in the air. "Hey, Kurenai, look what I've caught!" said Anko gleefully. Now Sakura remembered her, the ape-shit insane proctor from the chunin exams. "It's pink!" the woman shouted, as if it explained everything.

"And she also took out quite a few snakes before getting caught."

"What?" asked the purplette before eyeing the bloody mess. "So she did." The woman faked a tear. "She killed those innocent little snakes." Without warning, the snakes dropped Sakura on her head and disappeared. "Better than I would have expected."

"Thanks?" Sakura said, wondering if it was a compliment or insult.

"Tell me, pinky-chan, what training have you been doing since the invasion?" the snake-mistress asked questioningly.

Sakura easily revealed her schedule, an intense morning to night attempt to improve in which she worked primarily on speed, improving her chakra reserves, and genjutsu. And the jounin were impressed. Maybe she wasn't just a fan girl. "So," the crazy woman continued, her interest peaked at Sakura's personality and Kurenai's at Sakura's mention of genjutsu, "you want some senseis for the afternoon?" Before Sakura could respond, Anko quickly said, "Good then, we'll start with twenty laps and increase it from there." Sakura had never come back from training so sore before as she did that night. Or quite as proud.

Naruto was aggravated. Aang said it was the first step to something greater, something that he'd only achieved late in the age of ninja, but something amazing. Right now, however, it was the most extreme charka control exercise Naruto had heard of. But damn it was hard to walk on air bubbles! Honestly it was the best thing that could be done on the road as Jiraiya said it would be best to get into town to teach him a special jutsu. So, in the meantime, he was using chakra to condense the air underneath his feet. Right now, Aang said, it would be good enough if he could just feel resistance when he walked, but that, eventually, he should actually not touch the ground.

The technique performed under the same idea as water-walking and tree-walking, just to the extreme. Where tree-walking let one learn how much chakra would hold their body and to focus it to the foot, one of the hardest areas of the body to focus chakra to, it used a constant amount of chakra for the most part. In water-walking, not only was the surface one was standing on constantly shifting, but now one had to use chakra to attract water molecules together and to increase the intermolecular bonds to the point where the liquid could hold a human's weight. Air-walking was nothing new, but much harder. One had to pull all of the molecules in the air under a single foot and strengthen the attractions between molecules so much that the normally chaotic and distant gases that composed the air would be able to support human weight. And it was really hard!

But Aang said that he should be able to do it and that, if he could manage the chakra control for this, then other jutsu would become much easier to control. So he performed the exercise, stumbling along, nearly falling when the air gave more or less resistance than he expected, but, as with most things revolving around manipulating air, he picked it up fairly quickly. By the time they had reached the first town on their list for searching, he had the technique down pretty well. With each step, before his foot actually hit the ground, it felt like he was pushing through something with just a little more give, something about the consistency of water or just a little runnier. Jiraiya still laughed at the boy as the way he was walking looked funny, but Naruto had told him of the exercise when he had fallen for the umpteenth time and really both Jiraiya and Aang were impressed by how fast he was progressing.

As they reached a hill that overlooked much of the town, Jiraiya stopped Naruto to brief him on their goals today. "Okay, brat," he started, "I'm going to give you money to find a room tonight for us. I'll be looking for information. I'll find you later, so have fun, you have the rest of the day off." Jiraiya tossed him a few coins before the two walked into town and the spymaster took off to find information on his own. Until Jiraiya found the boy walking with him.

"Naruto," the man said, "you know I gave you the day off, right?" The boy nodded. "Then why are you following me?"

"Well," the boy started, "if I'm your apprentice, and getting information is a big part of your job, then shouldn't I be seeing how you do it?" It made sense to him, and to Aang.

Jiraiya, however, was disagreeable. Not that the boy wanted to learn, but half of his sources were in questionable brothels and the seediest bars. Places where a perverted old man would be treated as commonplace but a young boy in the beginning of his teenage years would be sure to draw some odd looks. And Jiraiya didn't want to be memorable while gathering information. "No can do, Naruto." The boy looked like he was going to argue, but Jiraiya cut him off. "No- no buts. I'm glad you want to learn all aspects of being a shinobi, including gathering information, but where I'm going you'd blow any cover I had." At that, the boy looked down.

"Tell you what, next time I go out for information I'll go somewhere you can follow and help." Naruto perked up at that. "For now, find us a room, enjoy the town. I hear there's even a festival in the market district."

"Sure thing, Ero-sannin!" the boy said, and soon he was off.

"Goddamn brat," Jiraiya mumbled. "So much like his father it almost hurts. Good kid though." With that, he turned into a nearby ally, looking for a bar in town known for not asking questions of customers, but for seeing everyone who went through. At a price, of course. And after that he'd probably check out the local brothel. He didn't have any paid contacts in this town, but you could always pick something up from the girls at a house of pleasure. Men talked too much when they were trying to impress a pretty girl. And maybe, after he got what he was going there for, he'd ask for some information about Tsunade.

That left Naruto to wander around town, still practicing the airwalk exercise. He checked out the festival in town, and actually had fun meeting some new people and playing a few games. It was really great to experience a town where he was just another person. Where they didn't stare at him like a freak. Not to say that life was terrible in Konoha. He had always had the old man, the Ichiraku's, a few friends, and used to be babysat by Iruka before the man started to teach the Academy. And, of course, the past year or so he had gotten more friends who made him feel like just another normal teen - well, as normal as a physics-defying, element-flinging, clone-slinging, chakra-beast-containing teen could be.

But the looks of hate some villagers sent his way, as well as the looks of resentment and the looks that passed through him as if pretending or wishing he didn't exist, those hurt. He had been overcharged on most everything, had been taken by the Hokage from the orphanage for his own safety, and had been alone except for his few precious people. All those looks, all of his history, hurt. It really dug deep into the psyche of an emotional little boy who was told he was wrong, that he had sinned. And what was his sin? They said it was that he was born, that he mocked the heroes of the village, that he was a sin. That he had missed the mark.

Even now, when he got a few approving looks after his fight with Neji and the story of him taking on the Ichibi had gotten loose, those looks were just as bad. They didn't say, "Thank you," or, "We're sorry." They said, "At least he's not a total fuck up." "At least he's useful as a weapon." "He may be a demon, but at least it's not to us." They said one thing: "You did your duty. You did what few people could. Good. But don't expect thanks. We expected this of the demon inside you. It just proves what we always thought. You really are demon spawn." It wasn't hate anymore. It was, however, still brutal. Here, he received none of these looks.

No, the only looks he received were friendly hellos from happy festival-goers. A few looks of awe from little kids who saw the hitai-ate and asked him to show them "ninja tricks!" And he did. He cloned himself, used replacement on random targets, and amazed them with henge. Then they dragged him towards the games. He knocked over the milk bottle towers with little rubber balls, slammed the hammer on the lever hard enough to ring the bell, and gave away all of the prizes he won. He found himself picking out stuffed foxes more than anything else, though he did give one or two little boys stuffed toads. It was peaceful, relaxing, and overall fun.

After eating some lunch, he decided to go get the room as Jiraiya had asked. After finding a little bed-and-breakfast place, he decided that, no matter what Ero-sannin said, it might be good to get some experience in finding information. Plus, how was Ero-sannin supposed to find him anyway?

Naruto quickly created fifteen clones to run looking for the old pervert. He walked around aimlessly in the meantime, killing some time and looking himself. Soon though, Aang contacted him. 'Naruto, I believe that, while we wait for your clones' information I should tell you one of the three things this "air walking" can do for you. Now that you have condensed the air under your feet to such an extent, you need to do so around your whole body. This is a superior resistance training to using weights and will cause less damage to your muscles over time. You will also be using more chakra, which means your chakra stores will increase as will your chakra control. This in turn will allow you to use more chakra for air walking to further increase resistance and further increase your aptitude to use chakra.'

'Really?' the boy contacted the monk. 'If that is just one of the things it does, then what are the others?'

Aang thought for a moment. 'Well, once you are able to thicken the air enough, you can use the second technique. A permanent shield against any non-fire attack that uses condensed air to block and deflect techniques. You still will take damage – especially from lightning – if the attack is strong enough, but the shield should still weaken it.' The monk was quiet for a moment, determining if he should tell Naruto the third technique. 'One day, it may not be for several years, you will be able to use the third technique. But I don't want to get your hopes up and will keep it a secret for now. In the meantime, simply focus on spreading the resistance across your whole body.'

Although put out he didn't get to learn the third technique, he was psyched up to master the resistance technique and started, as Aang always suggested, with some meditation. It took a much larger portion of his chakra to maintain and, as of yet, was very unstable around his body. The pressure was not constant and shifted from average air to what felt like a semi-solid wall over the various surfaces of his skin, but he was satisfied to note that his entire body was already covered in the thickening air, an accomplishment that had taken him much longer with his feet.

A few seconds later and he received a poof of memory from a clone that had found someone crying out "Master Jiraiya! Master!" from a building on the other side of town. He dismissed the rest of his clones as he left to find his wayward sensei, though it is regrettable that he didn't wait that extra second to release his clones as they just missed the sight of two intimidating men rounding the corner. Their cloaks blowing lightly in the summer breeze, making it look like the red clouds on them were actually moving across the sable sky.

"I swear Shikimaru, if you even try that jutsu on me I'll already have control of your body to determine what both of us do."

"So troublesome," stated the above named ninja. Their team had been on a training kick ever since Naruto had joined them and, even though he had been gone for a few days now, they were still going at it hard. The three team members had been sparring with Asuma as their judge and mediator for the better part of the morning and the three-way match had been fairly even. It all changed when Ino had dodged the human boulder that is Choji under the influence of the Nikudan Sensha and Shikimaru had managed to corral the boy in with shadow spikes by using the Kage Nui jutsu, threatening to pop him like a balloon if he so much as moved and causing the boy to drop out. With Choji out of the picture it had been a one on one spar against Ino that had started off fine. Until she proved that she, too, could be a strategist.

It wasn't that her plans were better than Shikimaru's, but she definitely hadn't wasted any chakra on massive shadow spikes and that meant that many of his easier and better plans didn't work as he was running out of chakra and, though they were both physically tired from the small bouts of taijutsu that had broken out as time passed, she was still pretty full up on chakra. And now they were at an impasse. He only had the chakra for a single Kage Mane no Jutsu, or Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu, but she was cornered. She, on the other hand, couldn't get closer to engage him in taijutsu without being much too far into the range of his shadow but could shoot out one last Shintenshin no Jutsu at him which would travel just as fast as his shadow. For once, despite being the lazy one, Shikimaru rushed through hand signs first, shooting out his shadow and targeting the girl. Only for them to go right through her and for her to shimmer and disappear.

A kunai against his neck mere moments later convinced him to break his hand seal and declare defeat. She had kept that genjutsu up her sleeve until the last second and it had been a highly effective trump card. "Fine, fine, I give," he said while putting his hands into the air. Ino pulled away the kunai, giggled, and gave a small girly victory pose.

"I am so going to kick Naruto-kun's butt when he comes back if he doesn't trade hard enough while he's away."

Asuma chuckled at that. "Sorry to break the bad news to you, Ino, but don't remember when he fought with me? He was probably at the level of a strong chunin, or even weak special jounin when we fought. You may have improved, but I don't think you can deal with him just yet." He laughed again as she pouted. "Tell you what, we can go where you want to eat today because you won the spar."

They were expecting a café knowing her, and were quite surprised when, without a second though she said, "Ichiraku Ramen." Then again, maybe Shikimaru wasn't quite so surprised as they all knew she was dating Naruto and that was his favorite place.

On their way to the ramen stand they were passed up by Lee and Gai, as well as both Neji and Tenten who were running laps through the market district of the village. Although normal for Lee and Gai, it was new for the other two. Neji decided that he needed more stamina in the future and Tenten was trying to get her body up to snuff for kenjutsu and had such joined the green beasts. A little later, they found Sakura stumbling through the streets. She looked like she just came from a warzone which, considering her new sensei, was a distinct possibility. "Can't talk. Need food. Sleep. And then I train more."

Choji took pity on her, though, and threw her over his shoulder as they all went to the ramen stand. Pulling aside the curtain revealed team Kurenai already at lunch. While Choji sat Sakura on a stool at the stand and Shikimaru said hi to Kiba, Ino sat down next to Hinata. It seemed that Hinata had been trying much harder to change for the last few days, even standing up for herself once at dinner when a passing negative comment had come from one of the less popular elders of her clan. Of course, when her father saw she was hesitating less during sparring he deigned to take her side and chastised the man.

All in all though, everyone had been trying harder since the chunin exams ended and Naruto had left on his mission. After a short lunch break, which Sakura had slept through, Kurenai's team left for more training, Asuma's team left for a local C-rank mission, and Sakura remained asleep at a bar stool. At least until snakes wrapped around her limbs and dragged her away, her fingers clawing into the ground in resistance and her stomach growling in hunger at the missed opportunity for lunch. If she only knew how much harder Sasuke's training was, it is highly doubtful she would have been so reluctant for her much more lenient sensei.

It was late in the afternoon that same day when a young blonde boy followed his white haired sensei over to a balloon stand. The stand was in bad shape as a missing nin in his early twenties had picked a fight with Jiraiya and been flung, courtesy of the Rasengan Express, through the air, two walls (one fairly thin wood, one adobe), a fairly small tree, and into the stand where his body still lay. Twitching. While Naruto poked at the downed man's body in attempt to get a response, Jiraiya paid for all the stand's balloons and left the owner a hefty tip that would cover repairs.

"Come along Naruto," called the toad sannin. "We can do the first step for the rasengan at the inn."

The blonde looked up from the nin on the stand and quickly followed. "Coming Mas- you know, calling you master just doesn't feel right after walking in on that girl who meant it in a whole different way."

"Haha!" the older man laughed. "I guess I've still got it then. Just call me sensei and we'll be fine. For now though, we've got a couple more towns to check before we get to the big cities so we'll need to rest up."

They walked in to the room Naruto reserved for them, never noticing the crow across the street that peered into the building. Or its eye that, oddly enough, had three magatama rotating lazily around in a circle.

They spent the next day on the road and Jiraiya decided it was time to show the runt the rasengan again before the boy started to actually learn it and the boy was happy for the break. Due to his resistance training that he was doing for Aang, it felt like he had been walking through a thick slough all day long. Naruto watched closely as it seemed to almost disintegrate the part of the tree that Jiraiya had targeted.

"I get that it's strong, and seal less, and even fairly quiet until it hits the target," Naruto started, "but if it's that good then why don't more people learn it? It just looks like a big ball and swirling chakra."

"And that is exactly what it is," replied his master. "The truth is that there are two main manipulations behind all strong ninjutsu. One is elemental manipulation that causes one to understand and control the elements of fire, lightning, wind, earth, and water – even if you keep telling me there are only four and that lightning doesn't count. The other is shape manipulation and that determines if the burst of fire or air or whatever you use comes out as a spear, a ball, or anything else."

The man stopped to blow up a balloon. "The truth of the matter is that both of these take the average ninja years, decades even, to learn and master. And the rasengan is both the pinnacle and antithesis of shape manipulation which is what makes it truly hard to learn. And that's in addition to a chakra expenditure that could kill some chunin. I'll perform it once more to show you why, so pay close attention."

The man slowly formed up a bluish ball in his hand that then filled with a cacophony of blue and white swirls that touched but did not penetrate the surface. He then slowly put his hand through the bark of the tree again so Naruto could carefully examine the technique.

The boy soon figured it out. "There's a shell. You make a shell of chakra and then fill it with spiraling spinning chakra. The shell doesn't cut, but isn't affected by touching things and when something passes through the shell, the chakra inside grinds it down."

Aang was impressed as the boy had figured it out even before the monk had – and that was saying something as Naruto didn't used to be known as the sharpest knife in the drawer and, with thousands of years' experience, the monk was quite perceptive. Jiraiya, too, was impressed as he had only expected Naruto to grasp the idea of the shell by the third step of his three step process to make the rasengan. Still, knowing what to do and doing it are different things entirely.

"That is exactly right, gaki. Like I was saying, though, the problem is learning both parts to it. Experienced ninja can usually make the shell easily enough, and inexperienced nin can often make a wild chakra appear if they flare it all into their palm. The problem is doing both at the same time and spinning the chakra inside the shell. But that, is not what you need to do right now."

"What? Then what am I supposed to do? Isn't that all there is to the technique?" asked a confused blonde.

"Yes, that is all there is to it. But we do it in steps so it's easier than all at once." At that he held up a balloon in front of Naruto. He focused for a second before bumps and various rings formed all around the balloon until the balloon popped. "For now, just work on the spinning. Treat the balloon as the shell. And once you pop this shell, we'll continue."

He passed a balloon to Naruto who blew it up before grasping it in his hand and focusing tightly, eyes closed and focused on feeling the chakra moving. After a few seconds, he heard a loud "pop!" and found a busted balloon in his hand. "I did it!" the boy exclaimed while jumping up and down slightly in glee. "What's next?"

Jiraiya chuckled before simply responding, "Now don't use wind manipulation or air bending to do it."

Naruto nearly tripped mid-celebration as he realized he had cheated and not used pure shape manipulation. "Fine. But I swear I'll get this one too, old man." The boy was still walking through molasses and trying to pop the balloon when they arrived in the next town and stopped at an inn, Jiraiya splitting off from Naruto to go talk to an informant while the boy trained.

After about an hour of meditation, balloon in one hand, Naruto had easily gotten bulges and rings on the surface of the balloon, but couldn't yet pop it. But then he felt it. He was moving his chakra correctly, and if he just _knock-knock-knock_. His eyes opened, his concentration ruined, and he glared at the door. _Knock-knock-knock_.He refocused on his balloon. Surely the people would leave if he just didn't answer. Yet again he closed his eyes but this time he got into the correct frame of mind instantly. 'Ah, I get it,' he thought. 'I just need to spin it in as many directions as I can and-' Poof! The balloon popped. Followed by a _KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK_.

"Coming!" Naruto called. He was in a good mood, a good, good mood. He had just completed the first step of a only three step program for a low A-rank jutsu in one day that had taken Jiraiya nearly a week. He would be bragging tonight. Bragging and sending fifty clones into the woods to get his speed of doing the step up. He walked up to the door, opened it, and greeted his guests.

"What can I do for- Fuck!" It did not take a genius to know that when you saw Sharingan, you had a Uchiha. And when there were only two left, and this one was not Sasuke, he reacted fairly appropriately. "Itachi Uchiha." Itachi was a fairly attractive man with pitch black hair worn in a small ponytail, pale skin, and regal features. Two lines – either of age or stress though likely the latter as the life of a ninja is very stressful- ran down the sides of his face, and two striking red eyes adorned his face. Naruto then noticed the taller blue man behind Itachi with the sharpened teeth that signified one of the seven swordsman or a wannabe, gills which indicated a water user, and carrying a huge wrapped object. "And accomplice."

"You are to come with us, Naruto-san," Itachi said in a calm, emotionless voice.

"Yeah, or we'll have to make you come with us," said the blue man as he reached lightly for the bundle on his back. "Or Samehada will take off your legs." Now Naruto knew this man as another S-class – the highest class currently given – missing nin. Kisame Hoshigake.

"No," a red-haired man in a tattered black coat told a white-haired man in a red outfit, "I haven't heard about snakes or slugs, but I have heard about red clouds."

"You don't say? What kind of village would you be able to see red clouds in? It has to be a unique thing to behold," responded Jiraiya.

"Oh, certainly. They say there are two you can see in town now." The man paused, took a drink, and noticed several gold coins now on the table. "There are even rumors that weasels and fish are running about in town, but you know how unreliable such rumors can be."

"True, but it does strike my interest." As the toad sage stood up he put another coin on the table. "That ought to pay for our drinks," he said while knowing that it would take a month of drinking to burn through a quarter of the gold. "But now I'm going sightseeing. You are always such an interesting guide and I hope I can count on you for more entertainment in the future." The white-haired man shoved his way out of the bar and started running at a pace that most jounin would envy. After all, the crafty weasel and hungry shark may be hunting for prey.

Naruto slowly reached his hands behind his head in a manner that screamed subservience and surrender. He walked from the room and to the waiting men. Kisame was about to grab him and leave in a sunshin, only two hear two dreaded, and probably not wise for any stealth oriented task, words. "Dynamic Entry!"

The fish man quickly brought up his bundle to block the attack from a green-wearing jounin as Itachi jumped into the air, throwing shuriken both at the ground where he stood and a patch on the wall. Both spots burst into smoke as the hidden Kage Bunshin made by Kakashi that were about to spring a trap were destroyed. The cyclopean jounin walked around the corner, eye-smile in place but porn put away. "Ah, I see you found out my little ruse?" he asked.

"Yes. And now, you will both-" Kisame began only to jump back as a third voice called out, "Doton: Yomi Numa!" The floor turned into a quicksand like swamp that tried to suck in the two nukenin but did not affect the Konoha nin.

The floor turned back to normal as Jiraiya also rounded a corner at the other end of the hall. "Kuchiyose no Justsu: Iwagama!" the man shouted as he finished one last seal and slammed his hands into the ground. The walls, floor, and ceiling turned into a fleshy substance, the near impenetrable stomach of a giant fire-breathing toad, that also attempted to engulf and digest the nuke nin in such a fashion that ceiling and wall walking were useless defenses.

"Come! Kisame!" the Uchiha shouted. "We may win a fight here, but at least one of us would be lost. Trapped between Kakashi and Jiraiya with Gai in their midst was not a good plan and they went the only available place. Up.

Itachi muttered "Amaterasu" as eyes changed into a new form, that of the Mangekyou Sharingan, for a few seconds while spewing out black fire that easily ate through the ceiling. The nukenin leapt through the hole and Gai was quick to follow, but stopped by Jiraiya as the black flame coalesced into a boundary that would have cooked Gai in an instant. Jiraiya grabbed a scroll from his black with the kanji for fire and absorb on it, swiped a little blood across it, and watched as the fire was collected and extinguished into the scroll.

The three experienced nin and a nearly shell-shocked Naruto looked at the destruction as the toad stomach jutsu was released. Without a word wasted, the master grabbed his apprentice's shoulder and spirited them away while the jounin followed. No way in Hell was he paying for this mess. It was only a few seconds later when an unfortunate innkeeper came upon the damage. "No! My hotel rooms!" Little did he know that, as the reincarnation of a particular cabbage seller, he was cursed to constant property damage. But he would find out in time.

Kage Nui- Shadow Sewing- Spikes are made from shadows and are capable of piercing, cutting, and tearing.

Nikudan Sensha-Human Bullet Tank-The Akimichi user expands into a huge cannonball capable of quick movement and devastating blows.

Rasengan-Spiraling Sphere- The ultimate in shape manipulation that can grind most anything through the use of spiraling chakra contained in a spherical shell. It is not a complete jutsu.

Amaterasu-Goddess of the Sun-The ultimate fire technique is a bloodline only technique that requires the Mangekyou Sharingan, the form unlocked upon the owner of a mature Sharingan maintaining emotional strain (usually) from killing one's best friend. Amaterasu releases a black flame from one eye that can burn (almost) anything and does not cease to burn for a long period of time without further control.

Dynamic Entry-An entry kick used by Maito Gai that involves a high-speed jump kick.

Kage Mane no Jutsu-Shadow Imitation Technique-The controlling Nara manipulates their shadow until it connects with an opponent's. The Nara's physical actions are then repeated by the subdued party. It seems a strong enough person (though it is not determined if this is purely physical strength or if chakra enhanced strength also counts) can break the jutsu with enough effort.

Kage Kubi Shibari-Shadow Neck Bind- A variation of Shadow control used by the Nara clan to make shadow hands to strangle, hold, or break the opponent.

Kuchiyose no Justsu: Iwagama-Summoning Technique: Toad Stomach- The stomach of the Iwagama toad is very dense and acidic and can suck in and digest lesser opponents. It is also hard to escape and the toad breathes fire and must have a very strong stomach to do so.

Shintenshin no Jutsu-Mind Body Change Technique- The Yamanaka user projects his/her soul/mind to enter another body. They can then absorb (some) memory and control the body in (almost) all cases. The user's body, however, is left vulnerable and damage done to the possessed body is also done to the user's body. Canon expresses concern over the technique's slow speed and necessity for a good, straight aim.

Doton: Yomi Numa- Swamp of the Underworld – The user creates a quicksand-like bog on the ground to trap and slow enemies. It seems that chakra use determines thickness of the swamp and depth of the swamp.

Cabbage Seller- In Avatar, one unlucky man consistently has his cabbage stand destroyed by Aang and company under unfortunate, though often funny, circumstances. In honor of the destroyed hotels in Naruto, he will not be forgotten as his reincarnation's inns are destroyed.

And that is where I stop for the night. The chapter has been slightly edited, though not so much that one really needs to reread it.

Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.


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